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BEIJING -- There hasn't been much Tyson Gay news since the U.S. sprint star pulled up with a leg cramp and hamstring strain in the July 5 quarterfinals of the 200 meters at the U.S. Olympic trials.
Gay said then that the injury would not stop him from competing at the Olympics in the 100, which he had won a week earlier at the trials.
But he pulled out of a scheduled July 25 race in England, saying in a statement he did not want to risk pushing the envelope and jeopardizing his OIympic participation.
This is what else I know:
*Gay's coach, Jon Drummond, sent me an e-mail Sunday saying that the runner has been "training full go for two weeks.''
*Despite the injury, Gay stuck with his long-held plan to leave for Europe a few days after the trials and train there until moving on to China, where he is expected to arrive later this week.
*The one addition to the plan because of the injury involved consultation with Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfarth, the team doctor for the Bayern Munich soccer team, who has helped the likes of marathon world champion Paula Radcliffe, golfer Jose Maria Olazabal and soccer star Jurgen Klinsmann overcome sports injuries. Muller-Wohlfarth has treated injuries with such unusual substances as the gel from a coxcomb and an extract of calves' blood.
(Jamaica's Asafa Powell, one of the leading contenders for the 2008 gold in the 100, also visited the Bayern doctor, known as a miracle worker, after a torn groin muscle in 2005, but not even Muller-Wohlfarth could cure him in time for the world championships barely two weeks later.)
*Although he will have gone without a race for nearly six weeks, Gay should be able to use the first two rounds of the Olympic 100 to ease back into competition -- provided, of course, he doesn't ease up too early the way he did in the first round of the Olympic trials. Then he had to step on the gas again to assure advancing to the second round.
*If Gay is back to full fitness for the final, what a race it will be among him, Powell and Usain Bolt. It would feature the reigning world champion (Gay), the reigning world record-holder (Bolt) and the man whose record Bolt broke (Powell).
There never has been an Olympic 100 confrontation involving three men with such credentials.
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: Tyson Gay after suffering an injury during the men's 200-meter quarterfinals at the U.S. Olympic trials July 5. Credit: Paul Buck/EPA
Clean athletes have a responsibility to not remain silent when it comes to doping in sports.
It was announced on Friday that the International Olympic Committee had stripped the gold medal from the 2000 U.S. men's 1,600-meter relay team. Antonio Pettigrew had admitted using performance-enhancing drugs before, during and after the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Pettigrew never failed a drug test.
 Michael Johnson, a legend in the sport of track and field, will lose his gold medal along with other clean members of the relay.
Good.
That may sound callous. Allow me to explain why this is the best move that the IOC could have made. It comes down to a word or two. For starters, a word that sport is supposed to instill in participants. A word that participants should know is more than just a word.
Accountability.
Accountability is taking responsibility for your own actions. In sports, when you are a member of a team, accountability is something more. Athletes need to be accountable to their teammates. It isn’t an anti-doping agency that holds an athlete accountable. Athletes can fool the anti-doping agency. Pettigrew is another on a very long list that proves that duping the anti-doping folks is easy enough.
I have to wonder if he duped all of his teammates and coaches. Forgive me for thinking that someone knew, and kept silent. It’s just that I have been part of a team for a long time. You get to know your teammates, better than you’d like to most of the time.
Commitment is another word that takes on deeper meaning in sport. Commitment to the team is important. Commitment to clean sport is more important.
In this decision the IOC has done more to collar the cheats in sport than any anti-doping agency could hope to achieve. They sent a message to all clean athletes that doping will not be tolerated, and the people with the most to lose are the clean athletes, not the cheaters.
Cheaters only risk the truth being known. Clean athletes will have their dream ripped away from them for simply standing alongside a guilty teammate.
That’s cruel. Is it cruel enough for clean athletes to stand up and take action against dopers, teammate or not?
Let’s hope so.
It’s my hope that this action by the IOC is the catalyst that clean athletes need to turn on teammates or coaches who are haunting sports' darker corners. There isn’t any reward for outing cheats in sports, but until now there hasn’t been much consequence for remaining silent. For the most part, clean athletes have remained silent. Those that have come forward to out dirty athletes have, for the most part, been a shady clubhouse trainer/drug dealer sort, scandalized coaches, other dirty athletes, or criminals.
Unfortunately it usually comes down to a “he said, she said” situation with these types. Teammates, on the other hand, are in a position to gather evidence.
Teammates and coaches can put pressure on the dopers in a way that the anti-doping agency never will be able to. What a cheater might be able to conceal from the anti-doping agency, despite its best efforts, will be much more difficult to keep from coaches and teammates. As long as the clean athlete remains silent the cheaters only have to worry about an under-funded, under-effective anti doping agency.
Relay members Jerome Young and twins Calvin and Alvin Harrison all have failed drug tests at various points in their career.
My heart goes out to those clean members of the 1,600-meter relay team. Michael Johnson and Angelo Taylor, who lost their Olympic gold medals. But they haven’t lost their self-respect, or the respect of any decent American.
Respect. That’s a word Antonio Pettigrew and every other cheater should learn.
It’s worth more than any medal.
-- Gary Hall Jr.
Photo: Runners (from the left) Antonio Pettigrew, twin brothers Calvin and Alvin Harrison and Michael Johnson celebrate with their Olympic gold medals after winning the 1,600-meter relay at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Credit: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images
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BEIJING -- The International Olympic Committee inched forward in deciding what to do with medals won by athletes involved in the Balco doping scandal.
On Saturday, the IOC executive board went for the slam dunk by removing a 2000 Olympic gold medal from U.S. runner Antonio Pettigrew, who testified in the recent Trevor Graham trial about taking banned drugs before, during and after the 2000 Sydney Games.
Then the IOC took the medals away from the members of the U.S. men's 1,600-meter relay team on which Pettigrew won his gold -- or from those members who still had or wanted them, that is.
Relay member Michael Johnson, in a bit of grandstanding, said he was giving his medal back in the wake of Pettigrew's testimony.
Relay member Jerome Young already had lost his because he should have been ineligible for the 2000 Olympics because of a positive doping test.
Now relay members Angelo Taylor and twins Calvin and Alvin Harrison lose theirs.
Ironically, all the members but Young had kept their medals when the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in 2005 (after it was determined Young should have been banned) that it was "legal abracadabra" to punish all members of a relay that included one doped athlete because rules at the time did not specify such punishment.
That CAS ruling still applies if Taylor and the Harrisons want to appeal the IOC's Saturday move.
Of course, since both Harrisons also were found guilty of doping after 2000, so they might be disinclined to make such an appeal.
Now there is the matter of whether to reallocate the medals. In theory, that must be done within eight years after the Olympics, which means this Oct. 1.
That deadline likely will pass with no action because the IOC doesn't want to switch the standings, only to have more evidence from the Balco case taint athletes who would be advanced in the standings. So the IOC will wait until it thinks no more doping bombshells will fall.
It also has to decide what to do with the standings for the two 2000 Olympic relays that included Marion Jones, who has been stripped of her three golds and two bronzes after admitting to doping. She won a gold on the 1,600-meter relay and bronze on the 400-meter relay.
And the eight-year rule? The IOC simply will ignore it, as it often does other rules that it finds inconvenient.
Interestingly, the IOC's eight-year rule might not even be valid in this case, because it came into effect after the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: The U.S. men's 1,600-meter relay team celebrates after winning the gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. From the left are Antonio Pettigrew, Calvin Harrison, Michael Johnson and Alvin Harrison. Credit: Thomas Kienzle/Associated Press
 Sprinter Katerina Thanou is determined to run for Greece at the Beijing Olympics. And on Friday -- during her first public comments in years -- she said lingering doubts about whether the International Olympic Committee will let her compete are unfair.
Thanou, 33, ran in the 2000 Sydney Games, but served a two-year ban after missing a drug test before the 2004 Athens Olympics. She made the 2008 Greek national team after qualifying in the 100 meters.
An IOC disciplinary committee is due to meet on the night before the Games begin to decide whether she can participate. And Thanou is upset about that.
“There is no official charge against me, so why am I being asked if I want to take part in the Olympics even though I have qualified under the rules?” Thanou said at a Friday news conference in Athens. "I have been maligned and my career was damaged ... This is still going on. Enough is enough. I have never tested positive for any (banned substance) ... I don’t think any other runners are subjected to this.”
 Reuters, meanwhile, reports that the IOC isn't likely to decide before the Beijing Games who will get the five Sydney 2000 Olympics medals that have been stripped from jailed U.S. sprinter Marion Jones.
An IOC decision had been expected during an Aug. 2-3 executive board meeting, but an IOC official told Reuters on Friday that “a decision on this is unlikely to be taken during the board meeting here. It will most likely be taken after the Beijing Olympic Games.”
Jones, who won three golds and two bronze medals in Sydney, last year acknowledged that she took drugs to boost her performance. She was sentenced to six months in prison for lying to federal investigators.
The IOC subsequently stripped Jones of the medals and is expected to reallocate them to other athletes.
Thanou is one of the athletes who could be allocated a medal.
-- Greg Johnson
Photos: Top insert: Katerina Thanou spoke during a Friday press conference in Athens. Credit: STR/AFP/Getty Images
Bottom insert: Olympian Marion Jones after pleading guilty to federal charges on Oct. 5, 2007 in White Plains, N.Y. Credit: Mary Altaffer/Associated Press Photo
Some details are starting to emerge in the Russian doping scandal that threatens to keep five athletes, including some possible medal contenders, from competing in the Beijing Games.
All that the International Assn. of Athletics Federations said early Thursday was that seven female Russian athletes had been "provisionally suspended" for suspected doping violations.
Listed in the brief news release were: runners Svetlana Cherkasova (800 meters), Yulia Fomenko (1,500), Yelena Soboleva (800 and 1,500), Tatyana Tomashova (1,500) and Olga Yegorova (1,500 and 5,000), hammer thrower Gulfiya Khanafeyeva and discus thrower Darya Pishchalnikova.
Fomenko, Khanafeyeva, Pishchalnikova, Soboleva and Tomashova were members of the preliminary Russian team named for the Beijing Olympics. Tomashova is a two-time world 1,500 champion. Soboleva is a world-record holder and world champion middle-distance runner who was favored to win both the 800 and 1,500 meters at the Olympics.
The rules allow the athletes to call for an emergency ruling to suspend the ban, but time is going to be an issue because track and field competition starts Aug. 15.
The Associated Press reports that doping experts began to compare athletes' in-competition urine samples -- which clearly were delivered by the athletes themselves -- to those taken out of competition.
"After a long and careful study, it was clear it was not the same people giving the sample," a source close to the investigation told the Associated Press. The samples taken out of competition dated from March to August 2007, the source said.
How badly would losing the five Olympic team members hurt Russia?
“According to their latest results, they were considered to be real contenders for Olympic medals, including gold,” said All Russia Athletics Federation President Valentin Balakhnichev.
-- Greg Johnson
Photo: Russia's Tatyana Tomashova wins the gold medal in the women's 1,500-meter race during the European Athletics Championships in Goteborg, Sweden, in 2006. Credit: Anja Niedringhaus / Associated Press
The International Association of Athletics Federations on Thursday "provisionally suspended seven Russian athletes -- including some who were heading to the Beijing Games -- for doping offenses. The IIAF said that the decision "has been acknowledged by the All Russia Athletics Federation."
The athletes were charged with fraudulent substitution of urine, "which is both a prohibited method and also a form of tampering with the doping control process," according to an IIAF press release.
IAAF declined to make further comment until after final decision is entered by the ARAF. Athletes have 14 days under IAAF rules to request a hearing with their national federation. Once requested, hearings must be held within two months.
The suspended Russian athletes are: runners Svetlana Cherkasova (800 meter), Yulia Fomenko (1,500), Yelena Soboleva (800, 1,500), Tatyana Tomashova (1,500) and Olga Yegorova (1,500 and 5,000), hammer thrower Gulfiya Khanafeyeva and discus thrower Darya Pishchalnikova.
Fomenko, Khanafeyeva, Pishchalnikova, Soboleva and Tomashova were named earlier this month to the preliminary Russian team for next month’s Beijing Olympics, according to a statement on ARAF website.
Tomashova is a two-time world champion in the 1,500 and won a silver medal in the 2004 Athens Games. Soboleva is the world indoor record holder in the 1,500 and had run the world's fastest times this year in the 800 and 1,500.
"This IAAF decision dashes our athletes’ hopes to perform at Beijing," Valentin Balakhnichev, head of the federation, told Agence France-Presse.
Photo: Russia's Yelena Soboleva poses after setting a world Record in women's 1500-meter run in Spain on March 9. Credit: Thomas Kienzle / Associated Press
Asafa Powell ran his fastest 100-meter race of the season Tuesday at the Herculis Super Grand Prix meet in Monte Carlo. Powell won the 100 in 9.82 seconds — six-hundredths faster than a week ago in Stockholm.
“I was very impressed with my race,” Powell said. “It was a nil wind reading, so if I had a plus-one I would have run even faster.”
His time was eight-hundredths of a second slower than his previous best of 9.74, which set a world record — albeit not for long — in September. Fellow Jamaican Usain Bolt ran a 9.72 two months ago in New York. Powell, however, beat Bolt in Stockholm and appears to be on track toward reaching his peak form as the Beijing Games approach.
U.S. sprinter Darvis Patton, who also will compete in 100 at Beijing, was second in 9.98. Nesta Carter of Jamaica was third in 10.02.
Photo: Asafa Powell won the 100-meter event at the Herculis Super Grand Prix in Monaco on Tuesday. Credit: Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images
 Bryan Clay of Glendora, the 2004 Athens Games decathlon silver medalist and a member of the Beijing-bound U.S. track and field team, also is a champion of good causes, including volunteering for extra drug testing to prove he's clean.
But he's taking clean to another level by participating in a charity program called "Take Your Shirts Off to WIN," which is backed by WIN detergent. The program calls for people to donate workout clothes to WIN, which will wash them and send them to Giving is Winning, an organization promoting athletic activity among kids living in refugee camps around the world.
Donations can be made at participating retailers. A list is available at sweatlifter.com, which indicates there are at least two Southern California locations -- in Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach.
-- Helene Elliott
Photo: Bryan Clay holds his son, Jacob, after winning the decathlon 1,500-meter event during the U.S. Olympic trials in Eugene, Ore., on June 30. Credit: Rich Clement / European Pressphoto Agency
Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva broke her own world record today in the women’s pole vault with a leap of 16 feet, 6 1/2 inches. Isinbaeva's set her new mark during the Monaco Grand Prix on her third and final attempt at that height. She set her previous world record of 16-6 in Rome on July 11.
Isinbaeva, the reigning Olympic and world champion, will be in Beijing next month.
-- Greg Johnson
Photo: Russia's Yelena Isinbaeva celebrates after breaking the world record in Monaco. Credit: Claude Paris / Associated Press
 Alan Thompson, Australia's head swim team coach, tells Reuters that Michael Phelps is the kind of swimmer who could rise to the occasion as he tries to win eight Olympic golds.
Thompson, speaking to reporters in Kuala Lumpur, where his team is practicing, described Phelps as a "sensational swimmer. ... He thrives on the more events and the more success he has. It'll be tough to do, a tough program. But he's a very capable young man."
Mountain bike rider Klaus Nielsen on Tuesday was selected to replace banned cyclist Peter Riis Andersen on Denmark’s Olympic squad. Riis Andersen was barred from the Beijing Games after admitting that he'd taken a banned blood booster. The 28-year-old Nielsen finished second to Riis Andersen in the Danish mountain bike championships July 20.
Former Italian pole vault world champion Giuseppe Gibilisco is threatening to pull out of the Beijing Games because Coach Vitaly Petrov is spending too much time with women’s world and Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva.
"At this moment I’m behind in my preparation," Gibilisco told an Italian newspaper. "I don’t want to go to Beijing just to make up the numbers."
-- Greg Johnson
Photo: Michael Phelps signing autographs at Stanford University on July 12. Credit: Tony Avelar / Associated Press
 Three-time discus world champion Franka Dietzsch of Germany said Sunday she will skip the Beijing Olympics.
Dietzsch, 40, told Sport Bild magazine that health problems were the reason.
"It’s finally clear to me — I’m withdrawing," she said on the magazine's website. "I don’t need to expect a miracle anymore. The Olympics in China will take place without me."
German officials said Dietzsch, who was diagnosed with high blood pressure several months ago, had been guaranteed a berth on the Olympic team despite lackluster performances this year.
But Dietzsch said earlier she would only go to Beijing if she felt she could compete for a medal. She has won three world titles but never an Olympic medal.
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Germany's Franka Dietzsch during a meet last year. Credit: Eckehard Schulz / Associated Press
Are two runs better than one? Usain Bolt’s coach isn't sure.
Coach Glen Mills worries that the Jamaican sprinter could hurt his chances of winning the gold in the 200-meter -- his stronger race -- if he decides to compete in both the 100 and 200 at the Beijing Games.
“You have to ensure that you are not going into it just because there is a chance of glory, you have to go there knowing that your chance is solid,” Mills told Associated Press after Bolt won the 200 at the London Grand Prix earlier today in 19.76 seconds. “I think he will get a medal in both, it’s a question of winning.”
Bolt’s 200 time was the fastest ever run in Britain. Bolt finished in 19.76 seconds; second-place finisher Wallace Spearmon of the United States was more than half a second behind.
“I definitely want the double in Beijing, but my coach makes all my decisions for me,” Bolt told AP. “I’m just waiting on him to decide. I’m definitely ready — I’ve been ready for two months now. People may try to pressure me, but I don’t pressure myself because I look to do my best all the time.”
Photo: Usain Bolt of Jamaica, right, and Wallace Spearmon run the 200-meter during the London Grand Prix in England earlier today. Credit: Alastair Grant/Associated Press Photo
 Bernard Lagat finished third on Friday in the mile at the London Grand Prix -- marking the first time in 10 races that he's lost. It was the final race for the Kenyan-turned-U.S. citizen before the Beijing Games, but Lagat didn't seem to be worried about his third-place showing.
“I’m going to cry when I leave you guys,” Lagat joked with reporters after the race. "I’m not going to beat myself too much about it, I’m just going to concentrate on feeling better. Mentally I’m really ready for any challenge. I’m going to make sure I don’t lose again because if I lose the next one it means I lose gold.”
Lagat, 33, will run the 1,500-meter and 3,000-meter races in Beijing. He is preparing for the Games at a training camp in the forests surrounding Tubingen, Germany.
Lagat, who won two Olympic medals for Kenya, became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2004.
Photo: Bernard Lagat competes in the mile at the London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in England on Friday. Credit: Jonathan Brady/EPA
 An Iraqi delegation was heading to Switzerland earlier today to try and lift an International Olympic Committees ban on Iraq competing in the Beijing Games.
The Iraqi delegation hopes to meet with IOC representatives as early as Monday, according to Associated Press, which based its report on conversations with two Iraqi sports officials.
Earlier this week, the IOC instituted a permanent ban on Iraq participating in the Beijing Games. The action followed an interim ban announced after the IOC charged the Iraqi government with interfering in the country's Olympic affairs.
Iraq has appointed its own representatives to Iraq's National Olympic Committee, and the IOC wants the previous committee members reinstated. But four of the members, including the committee chief, were kidnapped two years ago and remain missing.
It's too late for some of Iraq's seven-member Olympics team to compete because the IOC already has selected the weight-lifting, judo, archery and rowing competitors. Track and field competitors are due to be determined on Wednesday. Iraqi still hopes to send a discus thrower and a sprinter to Beijing.
-- Greg Johnson
Photo: Talib Faisal, chief of the National Olympic Council of Iraq, held a press conference earlier today in Baghdad. Credit: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images
As Asafa Powell said earlier today, the Jamaicans are running quite well.
Without competition from fellow Jamaican Usain Bolt or American Tyson Gay, Powell let down a bit at the London Grand Prix but still won the 100 meters in 9.94 seconds. Marc Burns of Trinidad and Tobago was second in 9.97.
Another Jamaican, Sherone Simpson, won the women's 200 in 22.70, while the reigning world champion in the event, Allyson Felix of Los Angeles, was a disappointing fourth in 23.00. She wouldn't speak to reporters after the race and withdrew from the 400 relay.
The United States was 1-2 in the shot put, with Reese Hoffa winning with a throw of 69 feet-4. Adam Nelson was second at 69-1 1/2.
-- Randy Harvey
Photo: Asafa Powell runs in a first-round heat in the 100 meter race earlier today at the London Grand Prix. Credit: Adrian Dennis / AFP/Getty Images
Asafa Powell bested one rival, fellow Jamaican Usain Bolt, on Tuesday in Stockholm with his victory in the 100 meters.
Powell then began preparing for his next big test, on Friday in London against U.S. sprint champ Tyson Gay.
But that matchup isn't going to happen. Gay, still recovering from the hamstring injury suffered in the U.S. trials, withdrew Wednesday from the London Grand Prix.
Doctors continue to say that Gay will be 100% in time for the Beijing Olympics barring another injury.
-- Randy Harvey
Photo: Jamaica's Asafa Powell, center, wins the men's 100 meters ahead of Usain Bolt of Jamaica, right and Derrick Atkins from the Bahamas, left, who placed fifth. Credit: Jonas Ekstromer / Associated Press
DesMoinesRegister.com reports that 100-meter hurdles specialist Lolo Jones might race a horse after she's finished with the Beijing Games.
Jones is in discussions with about a possible promotion at Prairie Meadows Race Track & Casino in Altoona, Iowa. Jones, who will run the 100-meter hurdles at the Beijing Games, wasn't available for comment, but her attorney told the website that Jones dreamed up the woman-versus-horse race.
"She thought it would be something of interest," David Adelman said."It's tentatively been talked about, contingent upon schedule and a safe structure."
Among the options being considered: creating a safe environment for both contestants by steamrolling a footpath onto the racetrack for the human and letting the equine competitor run on the deeper, traditional surface.
 Though a race date has yet to be set, Prairie Meadows already has paid Jones $4,000 for an upcoming autograph session, the newspaper reported. Jones, who attended Des Moines Theodore Roosevelt High School, would use the cash to help finance her family's trip to Beijing.
Jones wouldn't be the first human to race a horse. The Blood-Horse magazine headline in June 2007 was "Man beats horse on River Downs turf course," when Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson outran thoroughbred racehorse Restore the Roar by 12 lengths. (For the record, Johnson ran 100 yards, and the horse ran 220 yards.)
Olympian Jesse Owns also staged some distinctive races in order to raise cash. His website notes that "For a while he was a runner-for-hire, racing against anything from people, to horses, to motorcycles."
No word yet on whether Jones' horse race would be a straight sprint or a steeplechase.
-- Greg Johnson
Photo: Olympian Jesse Owens in 1948 staged one of his races against a horse to raise money. Credit: Associated Press
Insert: Des Moines, Iowa-native Lolo Jones during an Olympic send-off rally on July 14 in her hometown. Credit: Charlie Neibergall / Associated Press
Don't concede that Olympic 100-meter gold to Usain Bolt yet.
Jamaican teammate, Asafa Powell -- the man whose world record (9.74) Bolt bested this season with a 9.72 -- won Tuesday's showdown between the two at the DN Galan meet in Stockholm.
Powell got off to a great start and dipped at the finish to beat an onrushing Bolt, 9.88 to 9.89.
But don't be so fast in thinking Powell has the upper hand, either.
According to the report on the international track federation web site, Bolt had a poor start and made no attempt to lean at the finish. That analysis is confirmed by video of the race on YouTube.com.
The best thing for Powell is that he is healthy after pulling out of his last scheduled race, the final at the July 11 Golden League meet in Rome, after feeling tightness in his groin.
Anyway, the most impressive thing about the 100 was the performance of all four Jamaican runners, with Nesta Carter clocking 9.98 and Michael Frater registering 10.04 in the "2" race. (Bolt and Powell were in the "1'' race). That quartet should be ready for a terrific showdown with the United States in the Olympic sprint relay in Beijing next month.
The anticipated Stockholm showdown between U.S. stars Sanya Richards and Allyson Felix in the women's 400 turned into a rout for Richards. She won in a time so pedestrian (50.38) that there were questions about the timing.
Jamaica’s Novlene Williams was second (50.85) and Felix, trying to earn a U.S. Olympic 4x400 relay spot, was third in 50.88, a time that would not normally impress relay selectors.
But Felix was faster than the Stockholm times of Monique Henderson (51.80) and Natasha Hastings (51.92), who also are in the pool for that relay. So are the top three at the 400 at the U.S. Olympic trials -- Richards, Mary Wineberg and DeeDee Trotter.
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: Asafa Powell, on the left, and Usain Bolt during the 100 meter competition at Olympic Stadium in Stockholm earlier today. Credit: Maja Suslin/AFP/Getty Images
The new boss of USA Track & Field didn't wait long before jumping in feet first on a critical issue for his sport: doping.
Speaking to the press last week, Doug Logan called doping a "horrible, horrible plague" and talked about the need for a cultural shift in people's attitudes toward cheating if the sport is going to rid itself of the doping plague.
So it was no surprise when Logan, who began his new job Monday, was outraged by Marion Jones' plea for a presidential commutation of her six-month jail sentence for lying to federal investigators.
And if Logan's reaction -- asking President Bush in an open letter to deny that commutation -- smacks a little of grandstanding, so be it. Better that than letting Jones off easier, because she never has confessed to the extent of her doping.
As I wrote in my Chicago Tribune blog, Globetrotting, Jan. 10, when the judge was about to determine Jones' sentence, I would have been lenient under three conditions: That Jones tell the entire truth about her use of performance-enhancing drugs.
That a percentage of any future income be garnished until she can return some of the $700,000 that the international track federation claims was ill-gotten gain.
That she do a substantial amount of community service.
But I also wrote this: In asking for leniency, Jones' lawyers said, "She has lost her livelihood. She has been ruined financially. She has lost her reputation."
And why shouldn't she have lost all those things, having been exposed as a duplicitous fraud and something of a pathological liar?
That ugly picture of who Marion Jones really was -– not the track superstar who was the first athlete on the cover of Vogue -– will haunt her future. But it serves no useful purpose to put Jones in jail, provided she finally faces her past.
She has not faced her past. The judge gave her six months and a big chunk of community service.
Now she wants out early. Doug Logan doesn't want that to happen, and, in the preamble to the letter that USATF released today, he has asked others to take a stand. Form your own opinion.
Below is the USATF preamble to Logan's letter, which appears after the jump:
USA Track & Field has written to President Bush to express our concern at Marion Jones' application for pardon or commutation of her conviction for making false statements to federal investigators. Make your own voice heard and join USATF in writing to President Bush. For more information on how to write the White House, click here.
Read on »
 The BBC reported that doping-tainted sprinter Katerina Thanou of Greece hopes to run at the Beijing Olympics.
"Katerina has told me she would like to compete in Beijing, and it is my belief that she will do so," Thanou's attorney Gregory Ioannidis told the BBC today. Thanou, 33, made Greece's provisional Olympic team after finishing the 100 meters in 11.39 seconds at a Greek track meet last week.
Thanou, who finished second behind Marion Jones in the 100-meter in the 2000 Sydney Games, subsequently served a two-year ban after missing a doping test before the 2004 Athens Olympics.
She and fellow Greek sprinter Costas Kenteris were accused of staging a motorcycle accident after missing the test. Both were forced to pull out of the games, were later suspended and still face criminal charges.
Photo: Katerina Thanou, a silver medalist in the 100-meter in the Sydney Games, wants to run in Beijing. Credit: Petros Giannakouris / Associated Press
The race that should have been a highlight of the Olympics -- and of the U.S. Olympic trials -- is scheduled to take place Tuesday at the DN Galan meet in Stockholm.
That is Allyson Felix against Sanya Richards in the 400 meters.
The international track federation deprived the world of a possible Beijing showdown between the two U.S. stars by refusing to make a schedule change that would have made a 200/400 double practicable in the Olympics.
 That left Felix to concentrate on the 200 and Richards the 400, the races that each won handily at the U.S. trials in Eugene.
Track fans had been buzzing about a Felix-Richards confrontation since Felix, who runs the 400 rarely, upset Richards (49.70 to 49.72) in last year's Stockholm meet. Richards had reasserted her supremacy in the event by the end of last season, beating Felix easily (49.79 to 50.17) in their only other meeting, at the Golden League meet in London.
But Felix showed again how good she could be with a startling 48.0 split (to Richards' 49.07) on the winning 4 x 400 relay at the 2007 worlds.
Felix shares the 2008 world-leading 400 time (49.83) with Botswana's Amantle Montsho, who also is scheduled to run in Stockholm, with Richards next at 49.86. The only big name missing from the race is Great Britain's Christine Ohuruogu, who won the 2007 world title in the absence of Richards, who failed to qualify for the event because she was ill at the U.S. world trials.
Track & Field News ranked Richards, Ohuruogu and Felix 1-2-3 in the 400 for 2007.
Subscribers to wcsn.com can watch Tuesday's race streamed live.
-- Philip Hersh
Top photo: Sanya Richards reacts after winning the gold medal in the women's 400 meter during U.S. Olympics trials earlier this month in Oregon. Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE
Insert: Allyson Felix after winning the gold medal in the women's 200 meter finals during the U.S. Olympic Trials on July 6. Credit: Andy Lyons/Getty Images
 If you missed Sandy Banks' column Saturday on UCLA's Jessica Cosby, it's worth taking a read.
"I tell them I'm a hammer thrower, and they're thinking 'hammer,' like nails into walls," Cosby told Sandy.
But Cosby's hammer is of the track and field variety, and she is very, very good at throwing it. And that is precisely what she will do as a member of the U.S. team at the Beijing Olympics next month.
As Sandy writes:
I heard about Cosby from her mom, who works at my neighborhood grocery store. Bev Cosby is understandably proud, as the mother of an Olympic athlete. 'Jessica works out four hours a day, five days a week,' she told me. 'But throwers don't get any love,' her mother said. 'Unless you're a [track] star like Allyson Felix, no one knows you. There's no publicity.' And I wonder if it dents a mother's pride to have to keep explaining to people like me what the hammer throw is and why her daughter does it.
Read the rest of Sandy's column.
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Jessica Cosby after winning the women's hammer throw competition at the U.S. Olympic trials. Credit: Kirby Lee / Image of Sport-US Presswire
There is a California connection to the legal fight that ended on Friday when a judge refused to grant Dwain Chambers an injunction that would have allowed him to run for Britain in the 100-meter event at the Beijing Games.
Earlier today, sprinters Tyrone Edgar and Craig Pickering were named to Britain's 100-meter squad.
Edgar, who won the 100 at last month's European Cup, moved to Los Angeles from London, according to HS International, his Irvine-based agent.
Edgar told the Associated Press that he's glad the legal tussle has ended: "I'm just thankful the court case is over and grateful for the opportunity. Iâve been getting a bit irritated with all the questions about it, but now I just want to forget about it and look forward to Beijing."
Here's what the HS International website has to say about the 26-year-old athlete: When Tyrone was 16, his mom told him to do something with himself, so he decided to start running. His talent for running proved to be fruitful as he moved to America to attend college on an athletic scholarship. Tyrone admits he loves America and enjoys playing Play Station, watching sports, and mentoring young kids."
Edgar studied at Texas A&M and now is based in California.
-- Greg Johnson
Photo: Tyrone Edgar winning a 100-meter heat at the British National Championships on July 10. Credit: Paul Ellis AFT/Getty Images
It would be no surprise if you have never heard of the world's most impressive runner this year.
After all, this runner's name does not even appear among the approximately 3,000 listed in the women's index of "Athletics 2008,'' the definitive international guidebook to the sport.
She is Pamela Jelimo, an 18-year-old Kenyan who previously distinguished herself by winning the 2007 African junior title in the 400 meters.
Now she is the overwhelming 2008 Olympic favorite in the 800.
And she also is just one of two remaining contenders, along with Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic, for the $1-million bonus given to athletes who win their event at all six Golden League meets. Jelimo and Vlasic both are 4-for-4, with two meets remaining.
Jelimo jumped up to the 800 this season, and at Friday's Golden League meet in Paris, she won with a time of 1 minute, 54.97 seconds, making her the seventh-fastest woman ever. Until Friday, when Yelena Soboleva ran 1:54.85 at the Russian Championships, Jelimo had the fastest 800 time since 1989, with a 1:54.99 from the Berlin Golden League meet in June.
Friday's Paris race was just one of many in which Jelimo has run stunning times in 2008. Since May 24, she has broken 1:56 five times, all in major European meets. Other than Soboleva this year, no one else has run faster than 1:56 since 2003.
In a sport beset by past doping, such an emergence from nowhere obviously raises questions, especially since Jelimo has limited her interviews to post-race comments. A French colleague told me Jelimo's agent declined a request to bring her to the press conference before the Paris meet.
Unlike Jelimo, the Russian has a track record, having set a world indoor record at 1,500 meters twice this year, taking it down to 3:57.71. She also ran this season's fastest indoor 800 in the world (1:56.49).
According to the international track federation website, Jelimo said she moved up to the 800 because her coach, Zaid Aziz, "saw that I could do much better than I had done in sprinting. He saw that I could use my sprinting to my advantage in the 800m.”
The brief biographies provided at the Paris meet said Jelimo "has apparently run only eight 800 meter races (including one heat), the first of which was at the Kenyan African Championships Trials in Nairobi on April 19, 2008.''
She ran that race, at altitude, in 2:01.02.
These are her times in seven 800 finals (all victories) since the debut:
1:58.70, also at altitude in the African Championships at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, May 4.
1:55.76, at Hengelo, the Netherlands, May 24.
1:54.99, at Berlin Golden League meet, June 1.
1:55.41, at Oslo Golden League meet, June 6.
1:57.71, at altitude in Kenyan Olympic trials at Nairobi, July 5.
1:55.69, at Rome Golden League meet July 11.
1:54.97, at Paris Golden League meet July 18.
"This was not a ‘race,’ it was a parade by an extraordinary talent,'' said the international track federation's account of the Paris 800.
"With just raw talent she’ll win the Olympics,” South African marathon runner Hendrick Ramaala told the Sunday Times of Johannesburg last month. "I think she’s an untouchable. All that can stop her now is injury or ill-health or burn-out, but not the other runners. Those girls are psyched out already.''
By someone they likely had not heard of three months ago.
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: Kenyan Pamela Jelimo celebrates after winning the women's 800 meters at the Athletics IAAF Golden Gala in Rome on July 11. Credit: Filippo Monteforte AFP/Getty Images
Jeremy Wariner, the world and Olympic 400-meter champion, was upset by LaShawn Merritt at the recent U.S. track and field Olympics trials. But earlier today he made sure that everyone knows it was an upset.
For the second time since the trials, Wariner beat Merritt, this time at the Gaz de France meet in Paris. Wariner won the 400 in 43.86 seconds, the world's best time this year. Merritt was second in 44.35.
Cuba's Dayron Robles turned in another strong performance in the 110-meter hurdles. He won in 12.88 seconds, one hundredth of a second off his world record time.
-- Randy Harvey
Photo: Jeremy Wariner, right, wins the men's 400 meter ahead of LaShawn Merritt during the Golden League meeting in France earlier today. Credit: Francois Mori / Associated Press
A few facts about, a few words from and a few observations on Doug Logan, most of which I gleaned today during a one-on-one phone interview, just hours after he was named USA Track & Field's new CEO.
His full name is Douglas George Logan y Gonzales de Mendoza, and his first language is Spanish. Logan was born in 1943 to a mother who had immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba and an American father.
 While his father was fighting in the Pacific, he and his mother went to Cuba to live with her parents. After his discharge, Logan's father found a job in Cuba, where the family stayed until 1949. Logan subsequently served with distinction in the U.S. military, earning two Bronze Stars in Vietnam.
He knows entertainment. Logan promoted rock-and-roll acts from 1985 through 1993 as boss of Chicago-based Ogden Presents, and, again as boss, booked them for the MetroCentre in Rockford, Ill., from 1979 through 1985.
His biggest coup: landing the Rolling Stones at the 10,000-seat MetroCentre as the third official stop on the Stones' 1981 Tattoo Tour -- after the band had just played the 75,000-seat JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.
Since leaving Major League Soccer, Logan has run Empresario, a New York-based sports consulting firm.
His take on how rock can apply to track: "When I took the job at the MetroCentre, [legendary promoter] Bill Graham told me, 'Throw out your whole collection of old rock-and-roll records and listen to what the market wants.' We have to think similarly to attract audiences in track and field.''
Read on »
The latest trend among athletes who defy expectations--including 41-year-old swimmer Dara Torres--is to request a drug test to deflect suspicion of an artificially enhanced performance.
Those athletes should be careful what they ask for.
Simon Vroemen, a 39-year-old steeplechaser from the Netherlands, ran the third-fastest time in the world this year last month in Germany. After realizing that there might be questions, he then asked to be drug tested.
The test revealed a steroid. Vroemen confirmed this week on his website that the B sample also came back positive.
He has a hearing scheduled Monday before Dutch Olympic and track and field officials and could be removed from the Olympic team.
-- Randy Harvey
Another Olympics legal battle has ended.
London's High Court has refused to grant Dwain Chambers an injunction that would have allowed the British sprinter to compete at the Beijing Games.
Chambers, 30, had been trying to overturn a lifetime Olympic ban imposed by the British Olympic Assn. for doping.
Chambers won the 100-meter race at the recent British Olympic trials and would have automatically qualified for an Olympic berth. He'd served a two-year suspension by the IAAF, which governs track and field, but was not eligible for Beijing because of the British Olympic Assn. ban.
The British Olympic Assn., which is expected to name its track and field team for Beijing this weekend, said that the matter is over.
"I have to say that it is a matter of regret that Dwain Chambers, an athlete with such undoubted talent, a winner of the European Youth Olympic Festival 100 (meter) as a young man, should by his own actions have put himself out of the running to shine on the Olympic stage in Beijing," British Olympic Assn. Chairman Colin Moynihan said in a statement.
-- Greg Johnson
Photo: Sprinter Dwain Chambers, center, leaves central London's High Court this morning after losing his bid for an injunction that would have allowed him to compete in the Beijing Games. Credit: Lefteris Pitarakis / Associated Press Photo
Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius won't be running in the Beijing Games.
The South African Olympic team today opted not to include Pistorius on its 1,600-meter relay team. The relay was the last chance for Pistorius, who, earlier in the week ran a personal best 46.25 in the 400 meter race, but fell short of the 45.55 qualifying time.
Athletics South Africa president Leonard Chuene said that four other South Africans had faster times, and Pistorius was not one of two athletes chosen as alternates for the Beijing Games.
The decision ended a months-long battle for Pistorius, both on the track and in court.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport earlier had overturned an IAAF ban on Pistorius, whose nickname -- "Blade Runner" -- referred to his carbon-fiber prosthetic legs. The IAAF had ruled that Pistorius enjoyed an unfair advantage from his J-shaped carbon fiber blades.
“From the beginning, we knew that he had to qualify,” Pistorius' manager, Peet Van Zyl, said via Associated Press. “We didn’t expect him to be granted any special opportunity or anything. The rules are the rules.”
Yet controversy lingered even after South Africa named its Olympic track and field squad.
The IAAF on Thursday said that it had been supportive of Pistorius’ bid to run at the Olympics -- despite comments made earlier this week by general secretary who said publicly that Pistorius could pose a danger to other runners because of his blade-like prosthetics.
Those comments “have no effect on the official eligibility of Oscar Pistorius, nor should they be misconstrued as a personal attack on Oscar,” the IAAF said in a statement.
Pistorius does plan to run in the Paralympic Games in Beijing that will be held from Sept. 6-17.
-- Greg Johnson
Photo: Sprinter Oscar Pistorius starts the men's 400 meters race at the Track and Field Golden Gala meeting in Rome's Olympic stadium on July 11. Credit: Andrew Medichini/Associated Press Photo
Big Bear resident Ryan Hall, who is favored to medal in the marathon event at the Beijing Olympics, will be given a community sendoff with a pep rally on Aug. 4 at the Big Bear Middle School football stadium.
Gates open at 4:30 p.m. and the ceremony begins at 5:30 p.m., with Hall scheduled to do a lap around the track.
“I’m just blown away from the amount of support the community has given me,” Hall said.
In addition to the pep rally, Big Bear has established a special campaign titled, “Move a Million Miles for Ryan Hall,” which is a community spirit initiative designed as a moral support booster for the Olympic medal hopeful.
The goal of the campaign is to reach 1 million miles in honor of Hall by Aug. 24, the date of the Olympic marathon. As of July 15 there were 2,610 participants signed up for the program, with 659,980 miles logged. Check out this video of Hall.
-- Debbie Goffa and Pete Thomas
Photo: Ryan Hall at the Olympic trials. Credit: Victor Sailor
 Doug Logan, former commissioner and president of Major League Soccer, is the new chief operating officer of USA Track & Field. The appointment was announced tonight by USATF.
He replaces Craig Masback, who stepped aside at the end of January to become director of business affairs for Nike’s Global Sports Marketing Division. USATF since has been led by a committee of four staff members, including president Bill Roe.
"We have said since we started the process of hiring a new CEO that it was more important to do it right than to do it quickly," Roe said. "In Doug Logan, we know we have found the right CEO to take us into the next phase of growth. We are so pleased to get a person of his caliber to lead our organization, and we are excited to welcome him to the USATF family."
Masback took over a troubled USATF in July 1997 and proved a steadying force. Since then, the federation’s annual budget has grown from $6.7 million to more than $17 million.
Logan led MLS from its 1995 inauguration, helping to secure long-term sponsorship commitments from sich companies as Nike, Adidas, Honda and MasterCard. He also negotiated a five-year television deal with ABC, ESPN and Univision. But flagging attendance led to Logan's ouster in August, 1999.
"I was honored to have stewardship of another major sport, soccer, for four years," Logan said Thursday on the USATF web site. "The opportunity to play a meaningful role in a second one was irresistible. The strength of the sport is based on the ubiquity of athletics and the fact that everyone has ’played’ at one time or another. Everyone has raced their brother or sister. To a large degree, it is a marketer’s dream.
"I will devote my energies to maintaining and improving the U.S. position at the top of the medal charts in world championships and Olympic Games, and I will be a passionate messenger in our battle against performance-enhancing drugs."
After leaving MLS, Logan ran a sports consulting firm that in 2001 helped in the creation of the National Rugby League.
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Doug Logan. Credit: Courtesy of USATF
A hearing was held today at London's High Court to determine if a temporary injunction should be granted to sprinter sprinter Dwain Chambers, whose earlier doping violation resulted in a lifetime ban by the British Olympic Assn. A ruling will be announced Friday.
Chambers, who won the 100-meter race at the recent British Olympic trials and would otherwise automatically qualify for the Olympic Games, has already served a two-year suspension handed down by the IAAF, which governs track and field.
Judge Colin Mackay, however, noted during the hearing that the sprinter would know that being caught taking steroids resulted in a life ban from the Olympics.
The sprinter’s lawyers argued that Chambers had expressed regret for his past behavior and deserved a place in Beijing, adding that he would strengthen Britain’s 100-meter squad.
The deadline to make the team for Beijing is Sunday.
The 30-year-old Chambers was banned after testing positive in August 2003 for the steroid THG, the drug at the center of the BALCO scandal.
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Dwain Chambers leaves the High Court in central London. Credit: Shaun Curry/AFP/Getty Images
 Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee who waged a battle for the right to run in the Olympics, failed today in his final attempt to secure a berth in the 400-meter individual event at the Beijing Olympics.
He could still be selected for South Africa’s 1,600-meter relay team, however.
Pistorius’ attempt to make the Olympic qualifying standard at a meet in Switzerland was 0.70 seconds outside the mark.
But his lawyers were quick to send track’s ruling body, the International Assn. of Athletics Federations, a letter warning it not to influence relay selection.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned a ban on Pistorius, nicknamed "Blade Runner" because of his carbon-fiber prosthetic legs. The IAAF had ruled that Pistorius would not be allowed to compete against able-bodied athletes because the 21-year-old’s J-shaped carbon fiber blades reportedly gave him an unfair advantage.
The CAS, which is the final arbiter, disagreed with the IAAF.
Three days ago, however, IAAF General Secretary Pierre Weiss told Agence France-Presse that Pistorius’ prosthetic limbs could be a "risk" to other runners in the 1,600-meter relay. And that prompted today's letter from Pistorius' attorneys.
"Pistorius has advised the IAAF that he will defend his right to compete without interference against able-bodied athletes through new legal action if the IAAF does not cease violating the CAS decision," his lawyers said in an e-mailed statement.
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Oscar Pistorius reacts after placing third in the men's 400-meter race in Lucerne, Switzerland, today. Associated Press / KEYSTONE / Sigi Tischler
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency today imposed a lifetime ban against Trevor Graham, who had coached such now-tainted track stars as Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery and Justin Gatlin.
In a news release, the USADA said that the former track and field coach is prohibited from "coaching or participating in any capacity in any competition or activity authorized or organized by the United States Olympic Committee, USA Track & Field, the International Association of Athletics Federations and/or any other signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code or any signatory's member organizations."
Graham was convicted on May 29 of one count of lying to federal investigators, in connection with the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) scandal that dates back to June 2003.
The USADA originally had charged Graham with violating anti-doping rules that prohibit the possession, trafficking and distribution of performance-enhancing drugs. The "lifetime period of ineligibility" went into effect today.
USADA chief executive Travis T. Tygart explained the harsh sanction this way: "While drug use by athletes is a serious wrong to be addressed with stiff penalties, involvement in doping by a coach is even more reprehensible and must be dealt with through the most severe of all sanctions. It is truly disgraceful when a coach uses his position to assist athletes under his care in doping."
Photo: Former track coach Trevor Graham leaves the federal building in San Francisco on Nov. 16, 2006. Credit: Ben Margot / Associated Press
Jamaica's Asafa Powell withdrew today from the Gaz de France track and field meet rather than risk irritating a groin cramp, the Associated Press reported. Powell is scheduled to run in the 100-meter race during the Beijing Games in less than a month.
Powell does plan to compete in the Super Grand Prix in Stockholm on July 22. "The injury is not bad," said his agent, Paul Doyle. "It just made him realize that he has to get back into training a little bit. He wants to put in a full week of training. He's been able to train fully. But to do Paris would interrupt training too much."
Powell was the world's fastest man in the 100 on the strength of a 9.74-second finish. That mark fell by the wayside on May 31 when Usain Bolt ran a 9.72 at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York. Tyson Gay zipped past both of them with a 9.68 (wind-aided) run during the U.S. trials in July.
Powell is "training hard and fully expects to get his world record back at some stage," Doyle said. "I think it's exciting for the sport [for] these guys to be racing each other and put up these fast times."
-- Greg Johnson
Photo: Asafa Powell prepares for the first heat of a 100-meter race in Rome on July 11. Credit: Andrew Medichini / Associated Press
British Olympic officials filled only one of three berths in the 100 meters today, ahead of the outcome of Dwain Chambers’ legal bid to overturn a lifetime doping ban.
Chambers won the race in Saturday’s national trials, but runner-up Simeon Williamson is the only confirmed sprinter.
The top two finishers Saturday would normally have been assured automatic places, with a third handed out at the discretion of the British Olympic Assn.
Craig Pickering and Tyrone Edgar were the third- and fourth-place finishers.
Philip Hersh wrote earlier today in this blog about the 30-year-old Chambers and his bid to participate in the Beijing Games. Chambers served a two-year ban for steroid abuse between 2003 and 2005.
Chambers' court hearing is now scheduled for Thursday.
-- Debbie Goffa
 Angela Williams of Ontario, a four-time NCAA champion at 100 meters at USC, and Monique Henderson of San Diego, who was the 2005 NCAA 400-meter champion at UCLA and part of the Athens champion 1,600-meter relay, were added to the relay pool for the U.S. Olympic track and field team.
Williams, this year's world indoor champion at 60 meters, was added to the 400-meter relay pool. She was a member of the Athens relay pool, but the U.S. team was disqualified because of a bad baton pass. Henderson was added to the 1,600-meter relay pool.
Javelin thrower Breaux Greer, who didn't make the finals, was added to the men's team by the USA Track and Field chair, per a rule that allows an athlete who was injured during the trial to be added to the team if he has previously achieved the Olympic "A" standard. Check out the complete list of who made the team.
--Helene Elliott
Photo: Angela Williams at the U.S. Olympic trials. Credit: Kirby Lee / Image of Sport-US Presswire
Is it any surprise athletes have only minimal faith in anti-doping efforts when the people in charge of them apply rules as they see fit?
Latest example: efforts by the holier-than-thou British Olympic Assn. to keep sprinter Dwain Chambers off its 2008 team, even though he won the 100 meters at Britain's Olympic trials Saturday.
Chambers, among those identified as dopers in the BALCO scandal, came clean and served a two-year ban that ended in 2005. Under the World Anti-Doping Code, that is the penalty for a first violation for steroid use.
The fact that Chambers took steroids on multiple occasions is irrelevant. A longer ban applies only if a known second violation occurs after the athlete has been banned.
The Brits decided in 1992 to add a by-law to their Olympic association rules that would prohibit any athlete banned for a violation of doping rules to compete in an Olympic Games.
That rule runs counter to the globally applicable anti-doping code, as Chambers' attorneys will argue this week in court, seeking an injunction against the BOA ban. The BOA undoubtedly will argue that its rule predates the WADA code.
No other British athlete has challenged the BOA rule, partly because of the costs involved. That is not an issue for Chambers because he is getting pro bono legal representation.
Many athletes have succeeded in appealing suspensions to the BOA in cases where drug tests were missed or the bans were for "lesser" substances, like stimulants. One of them is runner Christine Ohuruogu, reigning world champion at 400 meters, who could have been banned from the 2008 Summer Games because she missed three scheduled doping controls.
The BOA conveniently waived its Olympic ban three months after Ohuruogu won the 2007 world title, saying the notification system was too new or too complicated or some such poppycock. It also waived the Olympic ban on 2006 triathlon world champion Tim Don for similar reasons.
Former WADA boss Dick Pound, two-time Olympic hurdles champion Edwin Moses of the U.S. and Olympic triple jump champion Jonathan Edwards, a British sports icon, are among those who have criticized the BOA ban of Chambers. Pound did it on purely legal grounds, Moses and Edwards on fairness grounds. Edwards previously had urged Chambers to quit track and field because his presence was damaging the sport.
"I believe in second chances," Edwards told the Daily Mail 10 days ago.
Isn't that what the idea of serving a sentence is supposed to mean?
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: Dwain Chambers after winning the 100 meters Saturday. Credit: David Jones / Associated Press
 American Sanya Richards dominated the women’s 400-meter race at the Athens Grand Prix today, winning in 49.86 seconds.
At the U.S. Olympic track and field trials last weekend, Richards won the 400 in 49.89 seconds.
In today's IAAF race in Greece, she was challenged near the end but the 2005 World Championships silver medalist had more than enough power to increase her lead and collect the victory.
Jamaica’s Novlene Williams was second with 50.54 , while American Mary Wineberg clocked 50.58 for the third place.
On the IAAF (International Assn. of Athletics Federations) website, Richards has been checking in on occasion with readers as part of the IAAF's online diaries. You can read it in full but here is an excerpt:
On her races in Eugene...
I was very pleased with my final race at the Olympic trials. I wanted to run a bit faster for the first 200 metres but with the heavy headwind I had to run a more tactical race and conserve a bit to ensure I had a strong kick coming home. I felt relaxed and strong and was happy to secure my spot for Beijing!
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Last weekend, Sanya Richards was overjoyed after winning the 400 at the U.S. trials. Credit: Kirby Lee / Image of Sport-US Presswire
Usain Bolt, who holds the world record at 100 meters, won the 200 today at the Athens Grand Prix in 19.67 seconds, the fastest time in the event so far this year.
The 21-year-old Jamaican, who set the 100 world record in May with a time of 9.72 seconds, is now the fifth-fastest man of all time in the 200. American Michael Johnson still holds the world record in the 200, set at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
"I am very satisfied with my performance," Bolt told reporters. "I feel sure I will be very strong at the Olympic Games."
Brendan Christian of Antigua was second in 20.36.
Bolt has previously said he is unsure whether he will compete in both the 100 and 200 at the Beijing Olympics next month.
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Usain Bolt, after running the 200 in 19.67 seconds at the Athens Grand Prix. Thanassis Stavrakis / Associated Press
 Dara Torres this morning was dogged by questions about steroid use. She talked with Lisa Dillman about it at Stanford University, where the swim team worked out.
Though Torres had heard questions about drug use before, they've increased in number and volume since the 41-year-old mother qualified for an unprecedented fifth Olympics.
Torres, who hadn't competed in Olympic trials in eight years, can understand the nature of sport in this post-Barry Bonds, post-Marion Jones world.
"Unfortunately, you can't look someone in the eye and say, 'I'm not taking drugs,' " Torres told Dillman. "You have to take action. I've really tried everything I possibly can to take action and prove that I'm clean." Read the rest of what Torres -- who has won nine Olympic medals -- had to say.
Plenty has been written about Torres, including an online story for The Times by our blogger Philip Hersh a few days ago, and a column by Kurt Streeter that looked at athletes who seem to defy belief. Drugs certainly have devastated the sport of track and field, which Helene Elliott wrote about during the trials. And after the Tour de France became enmeshed once again in a drug problem, Hersh weighed in with a blog item today about Lance Armstrong's teammates, while Diane Pucin tackled the subject in a commentary in today's Times.
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Dara Torres during a workout at Stanford University on Saturday. Credit: Tony Avelar / Associated Press
Read on »
Dwain Chambers, who is returning from a two-year drug ban, won the 100 meters at Britain’s Olympic trials today in 10.00 seconds and now must wait to see if a judge overturns his Olympic ban.
Chambers, 30, was given a lifetime ban by the British Olympic Assn. for testing positive in 2003 for the steroid THG, the drug at the center of the BALCO scandal.
Chambers' lawyers must now persuade a judge at London's High Court on Wednesday to grant an injunction. His winning time also ensures Chambers a berth in the 4x100 relay -- if he is allowed to participate in the Beijing Games.
Britain has to set its Olympic squad by July 20.
The Associated Press quoted Chambers as saying he had done his part by winning and "hopefully, next week ... things will go well. I’d like to say thank you for everyone that supported me throughout this whole ordeal."
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Dwain Chambers, center, wins the 100-meter final at Britain's Olympic trials in Birmingham, England. Credit: David Jones / Associated Press
Former world-record holder Asafa Powell pulled out of the 100-meter final at the Golden Gala meet today in Rome because of a groin problem.
The Jamaican burst out of the blocks in his heat but suddenly pulled up and did not run in the final.
"He’s OK, but he felt his groin cramp up and stopped running as a precaution," said Paul Doyle, Powell’s manager.
According to an Associated Press report, Doyle said it was a new injury but acknowledged Powell has had problems with his groin.
Powell’s Jamaican teammate, Usain Bolt, set the 100-meter world record of 9.72 seconds in New York on May 31, improving on Powell’s 9.74.
At a news conference before the Rome meet began, Powell had told reporters it was good that Tyson Gay set a world (though wind-aided) record of 9.68 at the U.S. Olympic trials. "I think it is always better not to have all that pressure on your back. This year for the first time all eyes will be on Bolt and Gay. ..."
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Powell pulls up during his 100-meter heat at Golden Gala meet. Credit: Filippo Monteforte / AFP /Getty Images
 Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius today failed in another attempt to qualify for the Olympics.
The South African finished seventh in the 400 meter B race at Rome's Golden Gala meet with a time of 46.62.
Pistorius resumed training less than two months ago after the Court of Arbitration for Sport said he was eligible to compete for a berth on his nation's Olympic team, a ruling Diane Pucin chronicled.
He has been trying to meet the required "A" time of 45.55 to qualify for the Olympics in the 400, although his personal best is only 46.36.
In the last two years no South African in the 400 has met the required "A" time of 45.55.
If Pistorius is the runner South African athletic officials want at the Beijing Games, he will have to meet the "B" time of 45.95 to run the open 400.
The court overturned a decision by the Assn. of Athletics Federation that Pistorius’ carbon-fiber prosthetics gave him an unfair advantage and was banned from able-bodied races.
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Oscar Pistorius competes in the 400-meter B Race during the IAAF Golden Gala in Rome. Credit: Shaun Botterill / Getty Images
Talk about swift role reversal.
Last week, Olympic and world champion Jeremy Wariner was upset at the U.S. Olympic trials after coming in second to LaShawn Merritt in the 400-meter race. Today, Wariner beat Merritt to win the 400 at Rome’s Golden Gala, 44.36 seconds to Merritt's 44.37.
According to wire reports, Wariner had a big lead but suddenly found himself battling a late surge from Merritt.
No doubt Wariner will have his hands full in Beijing since Merritt beat him at the track and field trials in 44 seconds flat and at the Berlin Golden League meeting on June 1 with a time of 44.03.
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: LaShawn Merritt and Jeremy Wariner after the 400-meter race in Rome. Credit: Shaun Botterill / Getty Images
You've heard about Tyson Gay's run into the record book with the wind at his back. Reuters now reports that Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell, the world's fastest man until Bolt and Gay blew past, hopes to catch a tailwind from Gay's run.
"I think it is always better not to have all that pressure on your back," Powell told a news conference earlier today in Rome. "This year for the first time all eyes will be on Bolt and Gay. Definitely after the disappointments of recent years when I was favorite, I prefer this sort of situation."
The 100 is shaping up as a crowd pleaser in Beijing. Powell ran a 9.74 last September, Bolt followed in May with a 9.72 and Gay registered his wind-aided 9.68 during the recent U.S. Olympic track and field trials in Eugene.
"I am not thinking about Bolt or Gay," Powell said during the press conference. "If I run like I know I can, I shouldn't fear anyone."
We'll have to wait until Beijing to find out. Though Powell is slated to run tomorrow in Rome's Golden Gala meet, the world's current fastest men are sitting this one out.
-- Greg Johnson
Photo: Usain Bolt, left, edging out Michael Frater, center, and Asafa Powell, in the 100 meter during the Jamaican National Track and Field Championships and Olympics qualifier on June 28. Credit: Gregory Bull/Associated Press
 Elite athletes have been busy in recent weeks as the U.S., Jamaica and Kenya held their Olympic trials. But track meets are resuming around the world this week.
A few people and meets to watch:
Reigning 100-meter world champion Veronica Campbell-Brown, who was edged out of an Olympic berth in at Jamaica's Olympic trials, is scheduled to run the 100 at the Olympic Meeting Thessaloniki on Wednesday in Greece. Campbell-Brown will run the relay and the 200 in Beijing.
World pole vault record holder Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia is scheduled to make her outdoor debut Friday at the Golden League meet in Rome. Might she be hearing the footsteps of Jenn Stuczynski, who set an American record of 16 feet, 1-3/4 inches at the U.S. trials last weekend?
--Helene Elliott
Photo: Veronica Campbell-Brown celebrates after winning the 200-meter final during the Jamaican National Track and Field Championships and Olympic qualifier in Kingston on June 29. Credit: Associated Press Photo / Gregory Bull
EUGENE, Ore. -- For about seven years, from 1997 through 2004, Trevor Graham was one of the most renowned track and field coaches in the country, the man who made Marion Jones, Justin Gatlin and Shawn Crawford into Olympic champions and Tim Montgomery into a world record-holder.
Now Jones, Gatlin and Montgomery are banned from the sport for doping, and Graham is one of the most disgraced coaches in history -- the result, ironically, of his providing anti-doping authorities the syringe containing the drug THG, which is at the heart of the Balco scandal.
Sunday at the Olympic trials, Crawford became the only one of Graham's former big-time stars to make the 2008 Olympic team, finishing second in the 200 meters.
Crawford became the 2004 Olympic champion in the 200 meters under Graham, convicted May 29 of one count of lying to federal agents in the Balco investigation. He split with Graham in November 2006, soon after the coach was indicted. His 200 results last year, when he listed a man named Stephen Hayes as his coach, were unimpressive, so he moved to Bobby Kersee, who also coaches women's 200 star Allyson Felix.
Crawford, 30, is neither reluctant to give Graham credit nor afraid his achievements are tarnished by past association with the sulfurous coach.
"I think Trevor played a big role in my life,'' Crawford said. "We went to practice every day and trained our butt off. So I owe that (2004) gold medal to him.
"That was really my first serious training regimen. From that point on, I approached track and field with a different attitude. I give my best every time I go to the track. I learned that from Trevor. Until I moved to Raleigh (N.C., Graham's base), I was just lollygagging through my track and field career. He taught me how to have discipline and how to have structure in my training.''
Gatlin said similar things too, stubbornly rejecting advice to part with Graham after the 2004 Olympics. That undoubtedly made people reluctant to believe Gatlin's claim that his April 22, 2006 positive test for testosterone owed to sabotage.
"Are you worried his (Graham's) reputation casts a shadow over you?" I asked Crawford Sunday.
"Am I worried? No, because I don't care about somebody's reputation,'' Crawford said. "He makes decisions for him, I make decisions for me. Whatever he did with anybody else, I'm not worried about it, because I know what I did. So I can't hold that against a person. People make mistakes. I didn't make those mistakes so I'm not worried about it.''
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: Left to right, silver medalist Shawn Crawford, gold medalist Walter Dix and bronze medalist Wallace Spearmon after the men's 200-meter finals. Credit: Andy Lyons / Getty Images
EUGENE, Ore. -- Jon Drummond, a 2000 U.S. Olympic sprint relay gold medalist, called himself an adviser or technical consultant or whatever before the U.S. Olympic trials.
On Sunday, he admitted to the title, "coach.''
"This has been an emotional week for me,'' Drummond said after enduring his first trials as a coach.
One of his athletes, Tyson Gay, set a U.S. record in the 100 quarterfinals, then ran faster than anyone ever had (although wind-aided) to win the 100 final, then tumbled to the track with a leg cramp in the 200, knocking him out of the Olympics in that event.
Another of his athletes, Marshevet Hooker, missed a place in the Olympic 100 by one place and 3/100ths of a second. Then she dove across the finish line of the 200 to get third -- and an Olympic place by 1/100th of a second.
"Tyson is fine,'' Drummond said. "Tyson ran six" -- actually 5 1/4 -- "races and I don't think it's anything more than natural soreness. He fell, and when you fall, the body goes into shock. I think the shock was he fell, and it scared everybody, because he went down pretty hard.
"The good thing is that initial injuries usually happen when athletes try to stop. The fact he just fell was the saving grace on all of this.''
Drummond was beside himself with excitement over Hooker's finish in the 200.
"She made this Olympic team on a dive,'' Drummond said. "I thought that was pretty phenomenal.''
Drummond, never at a loss for a quip, noted that Hooker had followed the example of Christian Smith, who got into the Summer Games with a headlong lunge to take third in the men's 800 last week.
"That kid in the 800 starts a little domino effect,'' Drummond said. "It's like this is the Fall Olympics.''
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: Marshevet Hooker falls at the finish line to come in third behind winner Allyson Felix, right, and Muna Lee in the 200-meter final. Credit: Eric Gay / Associated Press
More from Tyson Gay today, who suffered a mild strain in one of the muscles that make up the hamstrings.
"Jon Drummond told me if I felt anything hurting, don't run,'' Gay told NBC today, referring to his coach. "Sometimes as an athlete, you think you are Superman. I should have made the call and not run.
"I will be 100% for the 100 meters and 4-by-100 relay" in Beijing, he said.
Gay pulled up and out of the 200 on Saturday and had to be carted off the track. The injury was initially said to be a cramp, but an MRI late Saturday found the strain.
-- Philip Hersh
EUGENE, Ore. -- Shannon Rowbury easily was the class of the field in the women's 1,500 meters, and she decided to show it after the pace lagged in Sunday's final.
Rowbury, a one-time Irish step dancer, began stepping very lively in the final lap and pulled away to an easy victory in 4 minutes, 5.48 5.17 seconds. Runner-up Erin Donohue, who trains with Rowbury, was second in 4:08.20. 4:18.20.
"I was having to slow myself down, so I decided I was going to push and keep up my pace,'' Rowbury said. "It is easier to do that than speed up and slow down.''
Rowbury, 24, missed the 2007 season -- her senior year at Duke -- because of a hip injury. She showed renewed fitness with a 4:01.61 earlier this year, spurring talk she could be the third U.S. woman to go sub-4, joining Mary Slaney and Suzy Favor Hamilton.
Prep star Jordan Hasay's run ended in the final, but she beat two starters, finishing 10th in 4:17.36, about three seconds off the U.S. high school record she set in the semifinals. Hasay leaves Monday for the World Junior Championships, then goes back to San Luis Obispo, Calif., for her senior year of high school.
"I didn't know what I would be capable of. I knew it was going to be a test for me,'' Hasay said. "The race went out slow, which was good for me. At the final kick I did the best I could, but it just wasn't there at the end.
"I came out to compete and not to be too intimidated. I still have a lot of work to do to be up there."
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: Second-place finisher Erin Donohue, left, and winner Shannon Rowbury after the women's 1,500 final. Credit: Eric Gay / Associated Press
EUGENE, Ore. -- David Oliver ran a 12.89 to win his semifinal heat of the men's 110-meter hurdles, 0.01 faster than Dominique Arnold's U.S. record and 0.02 off Dayron Robles' pending world record of 12.87. However, the wind was too strong for the time to be a legal record.
Two-time Olympic silver medalist Terrence Trammell won the second heat in a wind-legal 13.08 seconds.
-- Helene Elliott
EUGENE, Ore. -- John Godina, three times an Olympian and twice a medalist in the shotput, switched to discus because he thought it would take less of a toll on his oft-injured shoulders, knees and every other body part.
His reasoning was sound -- he had been a national discus champion a decade ago -- but the results Sunday weren't what he had envisioned. Godina, a 1995 UCLA graduate, didn't advance to the final eight in the men's discus and finished 12th overall.
"I've never had these feelings before. This is weird," he said. "Last year I didn't expect much because I was so injured. That was the first team I didn't make ever.
"This one kind of shocked me. I thought I was pretty well ready. That being said, I never really got the chance to train for discus. I started throwing it in early March. And after a five-year layoff that's an OK start if you're coming back."
He left with a bow to the crowd and raised his hands to applaud for the fans. The affection was mutual.
--Helene Elliott
 EUGENE, Ore. -- Bubba Thornton, coach of the U.S. men's track team, said today that he has seen injured sprinter Tyson Gay and is "very confident he is going to be in place when they say, 'On your mark,' " for the 100-meter dash in Beijing.
Gay pulled up and out of the 200 on Saturday after suffering a mild strain in the semitendinosus muscle in his left leg. The injury was initially said to be a cramp, but an MRI late Saturday found the strain, according to information released by his manager, Mark Wetmore, through USA Track and Field. Gay has been limited to "active rest" for 12 to 14 days, with light physical activity.
In simple terms, the problem is in one of the muscles that make up the hamstrings.
Thornton, of the University of Texas, said he got on an elevator this morning with Gay, whom he described as smiling and walking unaided.
"Time is on his side,'' Thornton said.
Jon Drummond, Gay's personal coach, said the 12 to 14 days of rest already were in Gay's program.
"When you come off a [planned] eight rounds of racing, you have got to allow the body to recover,'' he said today. "We're on schedule. We're not changing the plan."'
Thornton and his counterpart with the women's team, Jeanette Bolden, will be responsible for choosing the members of the pools for the men's and womens 400- and 1,600-meter relays. Gay would figure to be the anchor on the 400-meter relay if he's fit, and Thornton said he expects Gay to be ready.
"I saw Tyson this morning. He's making preparations for the call in Beijing," Thornton said.
The track and field trials end today and USATF must submit its nominations for the Beijing team to the U.S. Olympic Committee on July 8. The team will be announced on July 14.
The relay pools will not be announced until 24 hours before the first round of competition in Beijing, a USATF spokeswoman said.
Bolden said she expects decisions from Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher on Monday regarding whether they will compete in the 5,000 or 10,000 or both races in Beijing. Flanagan, Goucher and Amy Begley finished 1-2-3 in the 10,000; Goucher, Jennifer Rhines and Flanagan finished 1-2-3 in the 5,000. If Goucher or Flanagan should give up her spot in one of the distance races, the replacement would be the next-highest trials finisher who has achieved the "A" standard.
Also, both coaches praised the organization of the event and the caliber of the competition. "This has turned out to be a great Olympic trials," Bolden said.
Thornton said the community of Eugene had created "magic," and the athletes had risen to that level. "I believe the magic they are able to capture here, they're going to be able to take to Beijing," he said.
-- Helene Elliott and Philip Hersh
Photo: U.S. Olympic men's coach Bubba Thornton at today's news conference. Credit: Kirby Lee / Image of Sport-US Presswire
Tyson Gay has a mild strain in the semitendinosus muscle, according to the results of an MRI taken Saturday afternoon. USA Track & Field issued the update this morning.
The reigning world champion in the 200, who stumbled and fell in that event Saturday, will engage in "active rest" for up to 12-14 days and then is expected to resume training, according to USATF.
Gay is on the U.S. team after winning the 100 last weekend. If healthy, he is expected to be part of the 400m relay.
-- Debbie Goffa
EUGENE, Ore. -- You could say that when Michael Carter retired as a track athlete, he took his ball and went home.
Where his daughter picked it up.
The ball in question is a shotput.
Carter used it to win an Olympic silver medal in 1984.
Michelle heaved it a personal-best and U.S. season-leading mark of 61 feet 10 1/4 inches Saturday to win the Olympic trials and make her first Olympic team.
"There are not too many combos like this," Michelle, 22, said of herself and her dad.
Michael Carter has another distinction: the only person to win an Olympic medal and a Super Bowl ring in the same year, his first of nine seasons as a nose tackle (and three-time Pro Bowl player) for the San Francisco 49ers.
-- Philip Hersh
 USC alum Jesse Williams jumped 7 feet 6 1/2 inches today to win the men's high jump at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials.
Joining him on the U.S. team are Andra Manson, who tied for second with Jamie Nieto.
Nieto, however, along with the fourth- and fifth-place finishers, lacked the Olympic qualifying standard. And that left the last spot open for Dusty Jonas from the University of Nebraska.
Jonas had tied for sixth but won the last spot on the team by winning a jump-off.
Williams' personal best of 7 feet 7 3/4 inches came last year at the Trojan Invitational, a mark that propelled him to a No. 8 world ranking last year and the No. 1 ranking in the U.S.
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Jesse Williams celebrates in the men's high jump final at the track and field trials.
Credit: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images
UCLA alum Jessica Cosby is headed to Beijing after winning the hammer throw today, posting a U.S. trials record of 232 feet, or 70.72 meters, on her first toss. That broke Erin Gilreath's 2004 record of 70.42 meters. Cosby won by nearly five feet over her nearest competitor, Amber Campbell.
In the women's 100-meter hurdles, three Bruins alums advanced to Sunday's semifinals with Joanna Hayes leading the way. Joining her are Dawn Harper and Michelle Perry. USC alums Candice Davis and Ginnie Powell also advanced.
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Jessica Cosby in the final of the women's hammer throw. Credit: Charlie Riedel / Associated Press
EUGENE, Ore.--At 37, Allen Johnson knew that qualiyfing for the Beijing team in the 110-meter hurdles would be a longshot.
As long as his body cooperated, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist and seven-time U.S. outdoor champion was willing to give it a try -- but his body has finally betrayed him.
Johnson pulled up about halfway through his preliminary race today, unable to continue after aggravating a pulled tendon on the inside of his left leg, behind his shin.
"I injured it about six weeks ago and it just didn't heal, didn't hold up," he said.
"It's been bothering me for the past six, seven weeks, so I knew this was a possibility. I hoped that it wouldn't happen. I've been getting therapy, staying off of it, doing everything I could. It just didn't hold up."
He said he felt a twinge on the first hurdle but then it eased up. However, "the pain just got progressively worse and I couldn't go anymore," he said.
"It was really disappointing for me. I was really hoping to go back," said Johnson, who said he will probably undergo season-ending surgery. "I'd like to come back for next year and run, so we'll see."
--Helene Elliott
EUGENE, Ore. -- World champion Tyson Gay stumbled and fell in his 200-meter quarterfinal heat today at the U.S. track and field trials.
Although he had to be wheeled off the track, Gay’s manager Mark Wetmore later released a statement through USA Track & Field saying Gay had suffered "a severe cramp" in his left hamstring.
Gay, who won the 100 meters Sunday, was running out of Lane 7 and clutched his left leg as he went down in a heap.
Walter Dix, who won his heat in 20.56 seconds, said he was aware of what happened to Gay. "Hopefully ... we’ll get him back for the Olympics," Dix said.
Wetmore said the only other damage to Gay was "a little road rash from his fall" and quoted the sprinter as saying, "I’m very disappointed."
Gay was said to be at his hotel in Eugene resting and under the care of a physiotherapist.
Wetmore said Gay had spoken of a little bit of tightness in his hamstring during his warmup for the 200.
Shawn Crawford had the top time of 20.33. All the other contenders easily advanced, including Dix, Wallace Spearmon and Xavier Carter. The semifinals are scheduled for later today and the final will be on Sunday.
-- Helene Elliott
EUGENE, Ore. -- World champion Tyson Gay has fallen in the 200-meter quaterfinals heat and appears injured.
The trials' 100-meters champion could not finish the race after falling. Running out of Lane 7, he stumbled, and then pulled up and went down to the track in a heap, clutching his left leg. He was carried off the track for medical attention.
"I saw him pull up and something flew my way," said Damein White, who was running in Lane 6. "I just tried to keep going."
What flew White's way was Gay's number that had been attached to his back.
Walter Dix, who won his heat in 20.56 seconds, said he was aware of what happened to Gay. "Hopefully it was a minor injury and we'll get him back for the Olympics," Dix said.
-- Helene Elliott
Photo: Tyson Gay is helped off the track by medical staff after falling at the back turn of the men's 200-meter quarterfinals. Credit: Andy Lyons / Getty Images
On Friday night in Eugene, Ore., site of the U.S. Olympic track and field trials, three female high jumpers made the Beijing Olympic team and all three have California connections.
Trials winner Chaunte Howard is a 2002 graduate of North High in Riverside. Runner-up Amy Acuff, a 1997 UCLA graduate, qualified for her fourth Olympic team, and third-place finisher Sharon Day just finished her senior year at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
And, as Helene Elliott writes, all three have unusual twists to their triumphs.
-- Debbie Goffa
 EUGENE, Ore. -- Jordan Hasay and her family made plans to attend the U.S. Olympic trials as spectators and leave Friday for Poland, where she is to begin running in the World Junior Championships on July 11.
She found out Wednesday that other runners' withdrawals would allow her to run the 1,500 meters at the trials, but the 16-year-old from San Luis Obispo, Calif., still figured to be leaving after Thursday's first-round heats.
Then she made the Friday semifinals, and USA Track & Field officials said she did not have to travel with the team.
"Once I made the semis, they said it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, so I am traveling out on Monday,'' Hasay said.
That is a day after Hasay runs in the final, for which she qualified by setting a national high school record of 4 minutes 14.50 seconds.
Hasay, who just finished her sophomore year at Mission College prep, needed to be in the top six in her heat to make the final. With the sellout Hayward Field crowd urging her on, Hasay, running in the USA uniform she will wear in Poland, passed two runners in the final 200 meters to finish fifth.
"I never dreamed of making the final,'' she said.
She broke a record of 4:16.42 set three weeks ago by recent high school graduate Christine Babcock of Irvine, who finished ninth in Hasay's race.
Hasay already has become well-known for her waist-length blond hair, which she ties into a ponytail.
"Now It's kind of my trademark,'' she said. "So I'm kind of hesitant to cut it.''
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: Jordan Hasay celebrates after qualifying for the finals and setting a U.S. high school record time in the women's 1,500-meter semifinals. Credit: Andy Lyons / Getty Images
EUGENE, Ore. -- Maybe it was the outfits.
Breaux Greer, the eight-time U.S. javelin champion and 2007 world bronze medalist, and 46-year-old Roald Bradstock, wore some of the most colorful and unusual qualifying outfits, with spikes and pink dye involved. Neither advanced to the event final -- Bradstock finishing 16th in his heat with a throw of 225 feet 5 inches and Greer at 220-6.
Greer blamed an injured shoulder for his woes and said he probably would ignore the Beijing Games. "I've never watched a track meet," he said.
The javelin final is Sunday, the last day of the U.S. track and field trials.
-- Helene Elliott
Photo: Breaux Greer prepares to compete in the men's javelin preliminary round. Credit: Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images
EUGENE, Ore. -- Another javelin thrower has appeared in an outfit and hairdo that can only be described as a major faux pas.
Breaux Greer is sporting spiky hair colored with streaks of pink, black and white. They match his shirt, which has strange straps of the same colors.
There's something to be said for being fashion-forward, but Greer and Roald Bradstock -- the 46-year-old with the matching striped bodysuits and javelins -- are on shaky fashion ground.
-- Helene Elliott
 EUGENE, Ore. -- Roald Bradstock scored one for those well beyond their teenage years when he competed in the javelin qualifying Friday at age 46.
He didn't just show up, he made a huge splash: For his first throw, he wore a black-and-white striped bodysuit with his javelin sheathed in matching fabric. For his second throw, he wore a multicolored outfit -- and so did his javelin.
And for his third throw, he celebrated the Fourth of July by wearing a horizontally striped outfit of red, white and blue, with the javelin dressed to match.
Bradstock, a masters champion in the 45-to-49 age group, is also an accomplished artist. He represented Great Britain in 1984 and 1988 and became a U.S. citizen in 1995.
These are his fourth U.S. trials: He was fifth in 1996, didn't get out of qualifying in 2000 and was 10th in 2004.
--Helene Elliott
Photo: Roald Bradstock after his second javelin throw. Credit: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images
EUGENE, Ore.--Anna Willard has had quite a week.
Willard got a surprise wedding proposal last Saturday and on Thursday she got a berth on the Beijing Olympic team for the first women's Olympic 3,000-meter steeplechase competition.
Willard, a Brown graduate with a master's degree from Michigan, won the Olympic trials 3,000-meter steeplechase in an American-record time of 9 minutes, 27.59 seconds. Asked afterward if she were on Cloud 9, she laughed.
 "Cloud 11 maybe. I feel amazing," said Willard, who previously was most notable for the dyed-pink streak in her hair.
"Everything I've ever wanted has just happened."
As the race wore on, she knew she'd win but wanted to keep up a good pace. "The hurdles can start getting a little bigger as you get tired," she said.
But she wasn't intimidated by a close call at a water jump with Jennifer Barringer, who finished third in 9:33.11. Lindsey Anderson was second, in 9:30.75
"A physical race doesn't rattle me at all," Willard said. "I felt fantastic. I just knew I had it."
The only down note was that her fiance, Jonathan Pierce, was eliminated in the men's steeplechase semifinals.
--Helene Elliott
Top photo: Anna Willard celebrates her record. Credit: Andy Lyons / Getty Images
Inset: Gold medalist Anna Willard smiles on the podium between silver medalist Lindsey Anderson, left, and bronze medalist Jennifer Barringer. Credit: Andy Lyons / Getty Images
EUGENE, Ore. -- Delilah DiCrescenzo finished dead last in the 14-woman final of the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Olympic trials tonight.
Then the young woman from Chicago with the Warhollian fame -- an appearance at the 2008 Grammys when the song she inspired was nominated -- refused a New York Times' reporter's request for a brief interview after the race.
Her time, 10 minutes, 4.70 seconds, was 23 seconds off the personal best she ran earlier this season and 34 seconds from what Jennifer Barringer ran to earn the third spot on the 2008 Olympic team.
So you likely won't hear The Plain White T's "Hey There Delilah'' on NBC's Olympic telecasts.
Who knows whether this was the last anyone hears of her as a runner?
-- Philip Hersh
Read on »
 EUGENE, Ore. -- Half-miler Laura Roesler of North Dakota isn't the only high school runner to make a semifinal at these U.S. Olympic Trials.
Christine Babcock, 18, of Irvine, who set a national high school record in the 1,600 meters on May 31, and Jordan Hasay, 16, of San Luis Obispo, who has had a celebrated prep career in track and cross-country, each advanced tonight to the semifinals of the women's 1,500 meters.
Hasay, who just finished her junior year in high school, does not intend to run the Friday semis because she is leaving for another meet: the World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland. She already had made travel plans when withdrawals opened a spot for her in the trials.
Hasay, who has waist-length golden tresses worthy of Lady Godiva, stayed in the lead of her quarterfinal heat for 900 meters, eventually dropping back to eighth but advancing as a time qualifier. Babcock, headed for the University of Washington, ran at the back of her heat but moved up from ninth to seventh.
Babcock, of Irvine Woodbridge High, had the better time of the two -- 4 minutes, 18.32 seconds -- by 7/100ths of a second.
"I was expecting not to lead," Hasay said. "I'm still learning so I went out for the first 300 [meters]. I'm happy I could take the lead and help [the other runners] qualify and save energy for tomorrow. Now I feel ready for World Juniors."
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: Christine Babcock of Irvine Woodbridge High in a meet last month in which she set a national high school record 4:16.42 in the 1,500. Credit: Kirby Lee / Image of Sport-US Presswire
 Sanya Richards once hoped to compete in the 200 and 400 at the Olympics, but after battling Behcet's syndrome, she is happy to compete in just one. And after tonight's track and field trials, that one will be the 400 meters, which she won in a blazing 49.89.
As Philip Hersh points out in his profile of Richards today, medical literature calls Behcet's incurable, leaving those who suffer from it to go between remission and flare-ups. Her worst flare-up of 2007 occurred at the nationals, where she had to run three 400-meter races in three days.
The schedule at the Olympic trials has been more forgiving, with one round Sunday, one Monday, then two days' rest before tonight's final. It may have made the difference.
"It is completely under control," Richards told Hersh before the meet began. "The medication I have been taking since the New Year has made a world of difference. I haven't had a flare-up since Jan. 1, which I think is just a miracle.
"I feel really good, but I haven't put it out of my mind...."
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Sanya Richards celebrates after medal ceremonies for the women's 400 meter finals. Behind her is Dee Dee Trotter, who came in third. Credit: Eric Gay / Associated Press
EUGENE, Ore. -- Stacy Dragila, winner of the first women's pole vault Olympic gold medal at Sydney in 2000, has faded into the background while younger women emerged, including American record holder Jenn Stuczynski.
But Dragila, finally fit and healthy after several years of frustration and injuries, made it out of the qualifying round tonight with a jump of 14 feet, 1-1/4 inches. Stuczynski advanced at the same height; Tori Anthony of UCLA and former Bruin Tracy O'Hara also advanced, but Ingrid Kantola did not.
"It was fun to be out there and do things on the first attempt," Dragila said. "It saves my body.
"It's a nice feeling to kind of be a player again."
-- Helene Elliott
The day of Olympic surprises continued tonight, with LaShawn Merritt beating Jeremy Wariner in the men’s 400-meter race at the U.S. track and field competition. Merritt finished in 44 seconds flat, 20/100ths of a second faster than Wariner, the defending Olympic gold medalist. It is the second time Merritt has outdueled Wariner this year.
It was the second upset of the day after Brendan Hansen finished a shocking fourth in the 200-meter breaststroke, an event in which he is a former world record-holder. Only the top three finishers make the Olympic team in that event.
However, unlike Hansen, Wariner still did enough to earn his spot on the Olympic team in the 400, his best event.
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: LaShawn Merritt, left, crosses the finish line before Jeremy Wariner in the men's 400 meter final. Photo: Eric Gay / Associated Press
Sanya Richards wins 400 meters going away, in 49.89, at the U.S. track and field trials tonight.
-- Philip Hersh
EUGENE, Ore -- Delilah DiCrescenzo is better known as the inspiration for a Grammy-nominated song by the Plain White T's than she is as a runner.
The song is called, "Hey There Delilah.''
Fans at the U.S. Olympic trials Thursday will be able to say, "Hey there, that's Delilah in the final of the 3,000-meter steeplechase.''
Truth be told, DiCrescenzo, 25, is a longshot to make the team. She had only the 10th fastest time in Monday's qualifying.
But the Columbia University grad from Chicago made such a startling improvement in her personal best this season, from 9:59.48 to 9:41.68, that she came into the trials as the third fastest U.S. woman in 2008.
The new personal best got her below the Olympic "A" standard, which means she needs just to finish in the top three to go to Beijing, where the women's steeple will be contested in the Olympics for the first time.
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: Delilah DiCrescenzo with the band at the Grammy Awards in February. Credit: Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times
 EUGENE, Ore. -- Winning an Olympic gold medal doesn't guarantee a happily-ever-after.
Just ask Joanna Hayes of Los Angeles, who set an Olympic record in winning the 100-meter hurdles championship at the Athens Games but has struggled to return to that level.
Since 2004, she has battled a succession of injuries, including a chronic hamstring problem and what she called a fluke accident at practice one day in 2006 that left her with torn ligaments, a bone contusion and swelling.
"I heard all the things you don't want to hear when they came back with my MRI results," said Hayes, a 1999 UCLA graduate.
She has been fitter lately, winning the hurdles at the Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field in early June in a wind-aided 12.53 seconds in
Read on »
EUGENE, Ore. -- Bill Roe, USA Track and Field's acting chief executive, hinted on Tuesday that the Adidas Classic meet -- which has not drawn well the past few years -- might be moved from the Home Depot Center in Carson to another, unspecified stadium in southern California.
Michael Roth, a spokesman for AEG, which operates the Carson athletic complex, said today that no decision had been made for next year's meet. Adidas essentially bought the meet from AEG and has run it the past three years.
"We are continuing to talk with Adidas and we are hopeful of making a deal to return the meet to the Home Depot Center," Roth said.
-- Helene Elliott
EUGENE, Ore. — John Godina's heart said yes, continue as a shotputter. But his hand, elbows, knees and feet said no, and they prevailed.
That led Godina, a four-time world shotput champion and winner of Olympic silver in 1996 and bronze in 2000, to return to discus throwing after a five-year lapse and to acknowledge that his shotput career was, well, shot.
"It was too painful. Too many body parts hurt too much," said Godina, who will compete in the discus qualifying round at the U.S. Olympic trials tonight at Hayward Field.
"I decided I'd switch to an event that can probably hurt only one or two body parts."
Godina, a 1995 UCLA graduate, won the U.S. discus title in 1997 and 1998 and held the shotput and discus titles in '98. He was third in the shotput at the 2004 Olympic trials and ninth in the Games.
The lighter weight of the discus — 4.4 pounds, versus 16 for the shotput — is kinder to his body.
"And the motion's a lot longer and easier," he said. "It's not really as quick, moving in a circle.... You're still working hard but in a kind of softer, more gentle way."
He rated his season as "pretty good," with throws of 205 feet, 7 inches at the Reebok Grand Prix meet in New York and 202-11 at the Adidas Classic in Carson.
"After five years off, it took a while to get back into it," he said. "I'd say the last six weeks have been really solid."
Good enough, he said, to rate his chances of making the Olympic team at better than 50-50.
"I would say it's a good enough chance that I'll be disappointed if I don't go, that's for sure," said the 36-year-old, who operates a gym in Mesa, Ariz. His wife, Kendra Jordan, operates a pilates studio.
"I just need to do my job," he said. "As long as I do my job I should be fine."
-- Helene Elliott
Photo: John Godina was third in the discus at the Adidas Track Classic at the Home Depot Center in May. Credit: Kirby Lee / Image of Sport-US Presswire
EUGENE, Ore. -- The Alan Webb who will compete in the men's 1,500-meter quarterfinals on Thursday at Hayward Field and the Alan Webb who set a national prep record with a 3-minute, 59.86-second mile in 2001 are very different people.
That 2001 Webb was mostly promise. This Webb has performed, though he's still trying to get a good Olympic result on his resume.
Webb, 25, has endured many disappointments -- he won the Olympic trials 1,500 in 2004 but didn't get out of the first round of qualifying at Athens -- but has also enjoyed significant triumphs, including setting an American record of 3:46.91 in the mile last year and running a world-leading 3:30.54 in the 1,500.
"Somebody told me that every seven years you become a different person," he said. "I feel like it's a totally different game to me now. Like how I see things and how I approach it is different, and my confidence is different.
"I think I'm a different runner than I was before. Smarter, not just in individual races but on the whole."
That seasoning helped him get through some difficult moments this season. He skipped the indoor season and has competed outdoors only a few times, recording a seventh-place finish in the 1,500 here at the Prefontaine Classic and a did-not-finish at the Carlsbad 5,000 in April.
"In the past I might have gotten real frantic," he said, "but it helps having the confidence of a couple of times where I've struggled in my career and just returned even better. It's 'let's just relax, let's keep turning those legs over in training.' As long as you still want it, as long as you're still honest with yourself -- do I want to still do this? The answer is yes."
Webb skipped the 800 to conserve his strength for the 1,500 here. "I'm confident right now," he said. "I'm getting back on there. I'm going to be ready to go."
-- Helene Elliott
Photo credit: Don Ryan
A year ago, when Bernard Lagat qualified to run the 1,500 meters and the 5,000 at the world championships, Lagat hedged his decision on the double for two months until getting to the meet -- where he won both.
A day after winning the 5,000 at the Olympic trials, Lagat committed to the double in Beijing if he makes the U.S. team in the 1,500.
"Everyone knew last year I had problems with my stomach,'' Lagat, 33, said today. "I have no problems this year. I feel stronger this year. Why not double?''
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: Bernard Lagat en route to winning the men's 5,000 meter finals at the U.S. track and field trials. Credit: Andy Lyons / Getty Images
EUGENE, Ore. -- Bill Roe, acting chief executive of USA Track and Field, held a state-of-the-sport news conference today that covered a wide range of issues.
 After acknowledging that the sport's image has been battered by drug scandals, he said attendance at elite track meets was up "with one or two notable exceptions."
One of them is the Adidas meet held annually at the Home Depot Center in Carson. This year the event drew only about 3,200 people.
"I know that our meet organizers and our meet sponsors want to continue to have a meet," he said. "I also know that it's been 95 degrees for the last five years on the day of that meet. I have baked personally in that stadium.
"And I think Los Angelenos have a wide variety of things they can choose to do on the weekend. So it's just a matter of attracting the right group. The excitement and newness of the facility and the event may have worn off, and now we need to take a different tack on bringing people in the gate.
"And I know that they've talked about there's perhaps a better facility in the L.A. area that they could use."
A spokesman for AEG, which owns the Home Depot Center and has partnered with Adidas on the meet, declined to comment but said the company would issue a statement Wednesday.
Roe also said drug tests performed at the trials are due back from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency within 30 hours of the last event, on Sunday. USATF must submit a list of nominated athletes to the U.S. Olympic Committee by next Tuesday.
The quick turnaround of the lab results, Roe said, was "so we make sure we don't submit the name of an athlete who we're later going to find out has a doping test positive. So we're hopeful that we avoid that whole area."
-- Helene Elliott
Photo: Bill Roe at U.S. Olympic team trials news conference. Credit: Kirby Lee / Image of Sport-US Presswire
EUGENE, Ore. -- Track and field rules say a runner finishes when any part of the torso breaks the tape (or passes the electric eye used in big-time meets).
That is why runners lean at the finish. It is why Christian Smith dove headlong in the final of the men's 800-meters Monday, hoping that would get his shoulders to the finish ahead of those of Khadevis Robinson, who also dove.
This was not an exaggerated lean that turned into a tumble, which happened to Smith in a high school meet. This was a planned dive that gave Smith the third Olympic spot by 6/100ths of a second.
It also left him was with abrasions (like rug burns) on his arms and knees and cuts on his head, shoulder and hip.
"I hope one of them leaves a scar," Smith said Tuesday. "Then I will always be reminded of the race.
"This one [the shoulder] has the best chance. I don't mind if they all scar."
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: Christian Smith, far right, dives over the finish line ahead of, from left, Duane Solomon, Lopez Lomong and Khadevis Robinson in the men's 800 finals Monday. Credit: Andy Lyons / Getty Images
EUGENE, Ore. -- Track Town USA has lived up to its billing.
The return of the U.S. Olympic trials to Eugene after a 28-year absence has produced the passion the city's bid committee promised when it beat Sacramento, the 2000-2004 host, in the competition to host the event.
Not only that, but Eugene got a four-bagger: it also will have 2012 Olympic trials and the 2009 and 2011 national championships.
That is a valentine for a sport badly in need of love in the United States, what with doping
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Darn hard to find out when and where track and swimming trials are televised.
You'd think a big TV network like NBC would make this easier. Instead they've made it a test of how badly you want to watch. Pretty badly it turns out. I first stumbled on the Universal Sports station while scrolling channels and coming to the diving trials a few days after
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EUGENE, Ore. -- Local boys made good to the delight of another sellout crowd at Hayward Field Monday night.
Two Oregon Track Club members and a rising junior at the University of Oregon swept the Olympic places in the men's 800 meters before a pulsating stadium.
It was the highlight of the first four days of the Olympic trials, and it may wind up as the highlight of the 8-day meet.
Nick Symmonds, a Boise native who was a four-time Division III champion at Willamette University in Salem, Ore., was first, with Andrew Wheating, a Vermonter who runs for the
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 EUGENE, Ore. -- An odd footnote to the women's 800-meter finals.
Hazel Clark won the race -- and her third Olympic berth -- with a time of 1 minute, 59.82 seconds. Alice Schmidt was second in 2 minutes, 46 hundredths of a second and also earned a trip to the Olympics. However, third-place finisher Kameisha Bennett, third in 2:01.20, doesn't get to go.
The reason? She has not recorded a time equal to, or faster than, the Olympic "A" standard of 2 minutes flat. Schmidt has previously done that. So has fourth-place finisher Nicole Teter, who ran a 2:01.30 on Monday. So Teter gets the third berth.
-- Helene Elliott
Photo: Hazel Clark crosses the finish line to win the women's 800 meter final . On the left is Alice Schmidt and immediately behind Clark is Kameisha Bennett. Credit: Eric Risberg / Associated Press
EUGENE, Ore. -- It was a nice scene during the decathlon pole vault competition.
Tom Pappas, an Oregon native who attended Lane Community College here, was the only vaulter left at 17 feet, 4 1/2 inches. After he missed his first two attempts, the crowd intensified its already enthusiastic and rhythmic clapping -- and so did one of his rivals, Ashton Eaton, who had been jumping in the other flight.
That's commendable sportsmanship from Eaton, a sophomore at the University of Oregon. He cleared a personal-best 16-8 3/4.
-- Helene Elliott
Photo: Tom Pappas reacts after clearing the bar during the decathlon pole vault event. David J. Phillip / Associated Press
NBC is making 3,600 hours of Olympic-related action (trials and the actual games in Beijing) available via its television networks, websites and mobile devices. If you're at work and can't access a television without causing problems with the boss, NBCOlympics.com is streaming live, online coverage of track and field from Eugene, Ore., and swimming from Omaha.
And if you can't catch the action live on television or online? NBC is making track and field and swimming trials -- as well as trials for such Olympic sports as rowing, indoor volleyball and whitewater canoeing -- available on a delayed basis through its new Universal Sports arm.
Universal Sports is a joint venture with LA-based WCSN, which offers a wide array of Olympic-style sports through cable systems and online. WCSN is in the process of being rebranded as Universal Sports. It now can be seen in about 13 million homes nationwide. Universal Sports today announced that its programming is now available on Time Warner Cable's channel 226.
USA Swimming is offering what it describes as "live results" from the Olympic trials in Omaha, and USA Track and Field offers daily schedules, updates and quotes from athletes.
-- Greg Johnson
The whole nine meters.....
1. If there were any doubt about how NBC looks at swimming and track, this should answer it: On the day of the men's 100-meter final at the track trials, NBC's lead Olympic talent (that's TV talk, folks), Bob Costas, was at the swimming trials.
2. It's nice that Dara Torres, whose 41-year-old abs are shaped into a grotesque looking six-pack, may inspire women of that age to challenge themselves. But the idea that Torres is swimming faster than she did 16 years ago defies credulity. Her making the 2000
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The U.S. Olympic trials Sunday became a day of broken records, over and over and over.
It started in track and field with Tyson Gay, who ran like the wind in the 100 meters and, in a wind-aided time of 9.68, did it faster than any human in history. As Philip Hersh reports from the scene, nothing could diminish what Gay accomplished, wind or no wind.
Helene Elliott also was at the race and thinks the top three finishers -- Gay, Walter Dix and Darvis Patton -- in this marquee event could
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 If anyone had any question about Tyson Gay's chances to repeat his perfomance at the 2007 World Championships in the 100 meters, no one does now.
Gay blew past the field today at the 2008 U.S. track and field trials with a wind-aided 9.68, the fastest 100 meters ever by a human, to win the men's final.
Walter Dix, the 2007 NCAA champion from Florida State, overtook Darvis Patton at the end to win second place in 9.80. Patton was clocked at 9.84 for third.
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Tyson Gay wins the 100-meter final in a wind-aided 9.68 for the fastest time under any conditions in the U.S. track and field trials. Credit: Kirby Lee / Image of Sport-US Presswire
EUGENE, Ore. -- A bad day for decathlete Bryan Clay of Glendora, the Athens silver medalist, is still far better than most other athletes can dream of enjoying.
Clay is the leader in his signature event, with the last five events scheduled for Monday. But his lead is suprisingly narrow: 4,476 points,
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EUGENE, Ore. -- Jeff Hartwig, a snake collector, must have wondered if the hobby was coming back to figuratively bite him after he failed to clear a height in qualifying at the past two Olympic trials.
At 40, Hartwig has a found a charmed life as a vaulter.
The longtime U.S. record-holder made his second Olympic team -- but first since 1996 -- by finishing second in Sunday's final with a vault of 18 feet, 8 1/4 inches.
Derek Miles won the event in an upset over new U.S. record-holder Brad Walker, who was third.
Miles, Hartwig and Walker are the three vaulters going to Beijing.
-- Philip Hersh
EUGENE, Ore. -- Tyson Gay didn't need to be reminded where the finish line was. His 9.85 was the fastest semifinal time Sunday, and although he said he was "a little fatigued," he also said he feels good.
Walter Dix of Florida State was second in that initial semifinal, at 9.93 seconds. Also advancing were Rodney Martin (10.03) and Xavier Carter (10.09).
In the second heat, Wallace Spearmon Jr. was outleaned by Michael Rodgers for fourth and the last berth in the finals. Darvis Patton (10.04), Travis Padgett (10.11), Leroy Dixon (10.17) and Rodgers (10.178) advanced. Spearmon's time was 10.179.
"Now I have to make the team in the 200," Spearmon said. "This was a good workout."
He also predicted that Gay "should win. I think he's the favorite."
Patton, asked what he wanted to work on for the final, replied, "top three," as he walked past a line of reporters.
Jeff Demps, the Florida high-schooler, was timed in 10.34, last in the second semifinal. "I'll come back strong next year," said Demps, who will be a running back for the Florida Gators next season.
--Helene Elliott
Photo: Tyson Gay, center, races against Ivory Williams, left, and Rodney Martin in the men's 100 meter semifinals. Credit: Eric Gay / Associated Press
 EUGENE, Ore. -- The six sub-10-second sprinters from Saturday's quarterfinals are evenly split in today's semifinals.
In Heat 1, Rodney Martin (9.95), Tyson Gay (American record 9.77) and Ivory Williams are in Lanes 3-4-5, respectively.
Heat 2 has two newly minted record holders: in Lane 3 is Jeff Demps of Lake County, Fla., whose 10.01 set an American high-school record as well as American and world junior records. He's headed to the University of Florida to run track and play football. In Lane 4 is Travis Padgett of Clemson, pictured at right, whose 9.89 set a collegiate record.
In Lanes 5 and 6 are Darvis Patton (9.89) and Mark Jelks (9.99)
Given the fast times so far and the continuation of the scorching-hot weather that sprinters love, there could be more records in store, if not in the semifinals then in the final. That's scheduled to be run at 4:49 p.m.
--Helene Elliott
Photo: Travis Padgett during Saturday's quarterfinals. Credit: Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images
EUGENE, Ore. -- Track athletes frequently change coaches, usually because their careers are stagnating, so they hope a change in scenery will provide a boost.
Muna Lee, the surprise winner of Saturday's 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic trials here, made her most recent change because she felt working in Los Angeles with Bob Kersee, one of the sport's highest-profile coaches, was cramping her style.
Figuratively and literally.
The Kansas City native simply didn't love L.A. during the two years she spent there after leaving Louisiana State University.
"It's really expensive," Lee said, noting she was paying $1,300 a month in rent for a 500-square-foot apartment. That is big money for an athlete whose past achievements, affected by recurrent injuries, had not been enough to earn a lucrative shoe contract.
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Amanda Beard talks with Lisa Dillman about Playboy and trying to make the Beijing Olympics team. Watch the video of Beard. The swim trials began today in Omaha with preliminary heats and Dillman is there. Michael Phelps, seen above during today's preliminaries, will be in the men's 400-meter individual medley tonight. Follow the action live. Here's a TV schedule.
 Muna Lee, right, may not be a household name yet, but after her blistering sprint to win the women's 100-meter final, Philip Hersh reports that all she could say was, "I'm very surprised." Looking ahead to today, one of the key events is the men's pole vault final. Brad Walker is in it and holds the American record, set June 8. Will he break his own record? USA Track & Field has posted an event schedule.
Helene Elliott looks at the also-rans at the U.S. Track and Field trials going on in Eugene, Ore. As she points out, the difference between making the team and missing out can be 100th of a second.
Kevin Baxter reports on U.S.-born Mexican athletes playing for their parents' -- or sometimes grandparents' -- homeland, and why.
And Susan Spano reports for the Travel section from Qingdao, China, the old colonial city by the Yellow Sea that will host the Olympic sailing events.
-- Debbie Goffa
Top photo: Michael Phelps swims in the men's 400-meter individual medley preliminaries at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials in Omaha this morning. Credit: Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press
Photo: Muna Lee, winner of the women's 100-meter final, does some low fives with fans. Credit: Charlie Riedel /Associated Press
There was drama to the first heat of the women's 800-meter semifinals, and a gift by the end of the day.
Four sprinters fell to the track on the first lap when Becky Horn, who was boxed in and tried to break out, stumbled and went down, followed by Kameisha Bennett, Latavia Thomas and U.S. indoor record holder Nicole Teter, not necessarily in that order.
Teter managed to get up and worked her way up to fifth, although only the four top finishers in each of the two semis normally advance to the final. However, officials ruled tonight that Teter, Horn, Bennett and Thomas could advance. So instead of an eight-member field, there will be 12 runners in the final, which is scheduled for Monday night.
Alice Schmidt won the first semifinal in 2:03.27, while Morgan Uceny won the second in 2:02.10.
-- Debbie Goffa
Top photo: Alice Schmidt, right, runs ahead as Becky Horn starts to fall after getting tangled up with Kameisha Bennett, center, during the women's 800 meter semifinals. Credit: Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images
Lower photo: Becky Horn is already on the track while Kameisha Bennett is about to join her. Behind Bennett is Teter. On the ground at far right is Latavia Thomas. Credit: Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images
Muna Lee, injured for much of the past several seasons, upset the favorites in the women's 100 meters Saturday.
"I'm really surprised,'' Lee said.
Lee clocked 10.85, 12/100ths better than her previous personal best.
Torri Edwards, who had dominated the first two rounds and ran 10.78 in the semis, finished second in 10.90. Lauryn Williams, a 2004 Olympian who rises to the occasion in big meets, earned the third spot, also in 10.90.
"Just like in Osaka (the 2007 worlds), Torri ran three great rounds and somehow found a way to lose this race,'' NBC Commentator Ato Boldon said.
Allyson Felix was fifth in 10.96.
-- Philip Hersh
 How are you going to keep them running in Fargo, once they've seen Eugene?
That's the question 16-year-old Laura Roesler has to answer after having made the semifinals of the U.S. Olympic trials in the 800 meters.
Roesler finished last in her semifinal heat Saturday against competition of a level she never would find in North Dakota high school meets, where she routinely wins state titles at 100, 200, 400 and 800 meters.
But she made it to the semifinals against that senior elite competition.
"I've just got to run well whenever I find (this type of field) or keep pretending it's there and stay mentally tough,'' she said. "In the 800, I will see how far I can go by myself, and we train with the boys in practice.''
Roesler does not have to run preliminary races in her state meet. She admitted her legs felt tired after finishing Friday's heat with the seventh fastest time of the 16 qualifiers.
Running in the same unadorned pink shirt she had bought for $15 at Target, she ran at the back for nearly the entire semifinal and finished in 2 minutes 6.82 seconds, almost three seconds slower than her Friday time and nearly four seconds from fourth. The top four made the final.
"My main goal was to make it to the semis, and I did what I wanted to do," she said.
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: Laura Roesler pushes hard during the women's 800-meter semifinal Saturday. Credit: Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images
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EUGENE, Ore. -- Reigning world sprint champion Tyson Gay made a rookie mistake that nearly cost him a chance at a U.S. Olympic team spot in the 100 meters.
"My coach [Jon Drummond] told me, 'Champions don’t do that. Make it up in the next round,' " Gay said.
Gay did that -- and more.
He set a U.S. record with a time of 9.77 seconds in his quarterfinal heat Saturday at the U.S. Olympic trials, breaking the mark of 9.79 Maurice Greene set in 1999.
The time was also 7/100ths faster than Gay’s previous personal best.
Usain Bolt of Jamaica holds the world record at 9.72 from an early June race in New York.
"I just wanted to run as easy as possible and let it out in the (Sunday) final," Gay said.
In his first-round heat Saturday, Gay had a substantial lead but began easing up too much too soon, about 25 meters from the finish, then needed to start running hard again.
He wound up fourth with a time of 10.14 seconds in a race where only the top four were guaranteed advancement to the quarterfinals later Saturday. Had he not restarted the engine, Gay might have finished last.
"I misjudged the white line," Gay said.
He was referring to the two curved white lines near the finish, each used for the start of distance races. Gay undoubtedly meant to slow down at the second line, about seven meters from the finish, rather than the first line.
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: Tyson Gay sits next to a time clock showing his new American record of 9.77 seconds. Credit: Eric Gay / Associated Press |
EUGENE, Ore. -- Nicole Teter is back in contention for an Olympic berth in the 800.
Although she was entangled in a pileup in her semifinal heat and didn't place in the top four, she was moved into the final by decision of the head referee.
-- Helene Elliott
Tyson Gay broke the U.S. record in the men’s 100 meters today at the U.S. track and field trials with a clocking of 9.77 seconds.
That wiped out the old mark, set by Maurice Greene in 1999 when he ran 9.79. The world record is 9.72, held by Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, which he set last month.
-- Debbie Goffa
 EUGENE, Ore. -- The first semifinal of the women's 800 meters resembled the 405 freeway at rush hour: no room to pass and a big pileup.
Becky Horn, boxed in and hoping to go to the outside, said she was elbowed as she made her move and thrown off balance. She stumbled and nearly righted herself but couldn't stay upright, falling to the track. That set off a pileup that left four women on the track -- including Nicole Teter, who got up and finished but was out of the top four.
"It's devastating," Teter said. "But we signed up for the 800 and the 1,500 just as a fallback. Now, it seems to be a blessing in disguise."
-- Helene Elliott
Photo: Chanelle Price gets caught up as she competes in the women's 800-meter run. Far right is Becky Horn. Moments later, Horn tried to move out but stumbled and that left four women spawled on the track. Credit: Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images
EUGENE, Ore.--Could Allyson Felix's sprint double hopes be fading?
The Los Angeles resident finished an unspectacular third with 11.00 in her 100-meter semifinal Saturday, behind Torri Edwards' scorching 10.78 and Mechelle Lewis' 10.97. In the other semifinal, Marshevet Hooker again won her heat, this time with a 10.89. Muna Lee (10.91) was second, with Lauryn Williams and Angela Williams each timed at 10.92.
Only the top three finishers in Saturday's final will go to Beijing -- and the way Hooker and Edwards are running, they have to be considered the favorites. Lauryn Williams, Lee and Felix might be fighting for that final spot.
Angela Williams' time was a personal best, and it's easy to be happy for the USC graduate and four-time NCAA 100-meter champion. She graduated in 2002 and made the 2004 Athens team in the 400-meter relay, which dropped the baton and didn't finish. She has had something of a renaissance, winning the indoor world title at 60 meters.
Williams, 28, was delighted with her semifinal showing and personal record.
"It went really smooth. My main thing was just focusing on the finish and just running all the way through and running hard," she said. "I can't complain. It's a big PR for me. All I could do is my best and I definitely did that."
-- Helene Elliott
Photo: From left, Carmelita Jeter, Torri Edwards and Allyson Felix compete in the women's 100 meter race. Credit: Eric Gay / Associated Press
 EUGENE, Ore. -- Normally, a track athlete wouldn't worry much about a negative crowd reaction, because how much negativity could by fomented by the handful of fans who attend most meets?
But this is Hayward Field, in Track Town USA, where Friday's attendance was 4,000 more than the listed capacity of 16,350.
So Shalane Flanagan, a University of North Carolina grad, thought about how to deal with a crowd that would overwhelmingly favor her prime rival, Kara Goucher, who trains in Eugene, in the 10,000 meters.
"My coach told me it would be like the Tar Heels going into Cameron [Indoor] Stadium,'' Flanagan said, referring to the Duke basketball arena where the fans are known as the Cameron Crazies. "I knew they probably wouldn't be saying my name much.''
Flanagan fended off the crowd and Goucher, pulling away in the final 300 meters to win by 2.9 seconds in a Hayward Field record of 31 minutes, 34.8 seconds.
"I wanted to prove I could run fast over the last two laps in a tactical, championship race,'' she said.
The 26-year-old Massachusetts native had set a U.S. record of 30:34.9 last month, making her the race favorite.
"A lot of athletes dream of being the favorite. I was excited to be in that position.''
Goucher, bronze medalist at the 2007 worlds in Japan, also had a dream come true.
"My dream is not an obscure medal in Osaka, Japan,'' Goucher said. "It is to be an Olympian.''
Flanagan had made the 2004 Olympic team in the 5,000 but slogged to 11th in the semifinals at the Athens Games.
She and Goucher also are scheduled to run for 2008 places in the 5,000 Monday.
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: Shalane Flanagan runs ahead of Kara Goucher after they finished first and second, respectively, to make the U.S. Olympic team in the women's 10,000 meter final at Hayward Field. Credit: Matthew Stockman/ Getty Images
EUGENE, Ore. -- Tyson Gay, favored to win the 100 here and expected to be a medal contender in Beijing, almost eased his way out of contention.
Running in the final preliminary heat, Gay powered out of the blocks and was comfortably ahead -- until he started easing up way too early, at about the 70-meter mark. When he realized his mistake he powered up again and barely got fourth in the heat and a place in Saturday's quarterfinals.
"I misjudged the white line," he said over his shoulder as he walked past reporters hoping to interview him, never easing up there.
Walter Dix of Florida State, who has been hampered by a hamstring problem most of this season, had the fastest preliminary time, 9.96 seconds. The wind was 1.7 meters per second, so the time was wind-legal.
--Helene Elliott
 EUGENE, Ore. -- Sprinter Chryste Gaines, who served a two-year ban after being implicated in the BALCO investigation, made it past the preliminary round of the 100-meter dash Friday but was eliminated in the quarterfinal after running an 11.24.
She intends to continue running. "Yeah, why not?" said Gaines, who used her enforced time off to get an MBA at Kennesaw (Ga.) State and is an academic advisor at Georgia Tech.
Gaines, 37, also said she doesn't care if people say she's slower now because she's no longer taking performance-enhancing drugs. She never tested positive but was implicated as a user by BALCO founder Victor Conte and user-turned-informant Kelli White.
"I'm slower because I had two years out of the sport," said Gaines, part of the champion 400-meter relay at the 1996 Atlanta Games and the bronze-medal-winning relay at Sydney. "Each year compiles on the one before it. Being out of it for two years is a long time. It's a lifetime for some. It's a career for some."
-- Helene Elliott
Photo: In 2003, Chryste Gaines won the 100 meters race during the IAAF World Athletics Final in Monaco. She served a two-year ban for drug-related violations and is now free to compete.
Credit: Lionel Cironneau
EUGENE, Ore. -- The world record for the 200 meters Michael Johnson set at the 1996 Olympics is otherworldly. It has been without a challenger for a decade, and some think that time, 19.32 seconds, could outlive a couple more generations of sprinters.
Not Johnson.
"I'm ready to kiss it goodbye, if he keeps on doing what he is doing,'' Johnson said Saturday.
He is Jamaica's Usain Bolt, considered a 200-meter specialist until he broke the world record in the 100 with a time of 9.72 seconds in early June. No runner with Bolt's 200 credentials -- second to Tyson Gay at the 2007 worlds, 11th-fastest man in history coming into this season -- ever has run a 100 that fast.
"He ran 19.75 [a year ago], which was amazing enough, given that he's not the most technically sound 200-meter runner,'' Johnson said of Bolt. "Whatever technical flaws you have at 200 are going to be highlighted at 100.
"You take a look at his 100 when he broke the world record and the one before that, and he fixed a lot of things in the off-season. He's 6-5 and he looked like he was 5-5 getting out of the blocks.
"If the improvement in technique in the 200 matches what we've seen in terms of his improvement at 100, there's no telling what he's going to run.''
Bolt outdistanced Gay in the world-record 100. Over 200, his speed and stride length would seem to leave the U.S. star further arrears. Gay's current PR, 19.62, is faster than Bolt's, and Gay ran him down in the final straightaway at last year's worlds, but . . .
"If I'm Tyson, I just hope for the best for myself and hope for the worst from Bolt,'' Johnson said. "It is pretty ridiculous what Bolt is running. As a competitor, I would just have to acknowledge that and say there is nothing I can do about that. Maybe he will trip up somewhere, and I need to be in position to take advantage of that.''
Funny thing about all this is that Johnson, now an agent, has been expecting the other of his enduring records to fall -- the 400 mark of 43.18 he set in 1999. His client, reigning Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner, has been closing in steadily for two seasons, with a PR of 43.45.
Johnson, who won both the 200 and 400 at the 1996 Olympics and the 400 in 2000, says he is ready to see his name erased.
I don't wake up every morning thinking I'm still the world record-holder, and it's a good day because of it,'' Johnson said. "If Jeremy breaks it, it won't take anything away from my career.''
Still, the 200 record being in jeopardy is a Bolt out of the blue.
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: Two weeks ago, Jamaica's Usain Bolt celebrated his victory in men's 200m during the IAAF World Athletics Grand Prix meeting. He hopes to have another victory at the U.S. track and field trials. Credit: Samuel Kubani / AFP/Getty Images
The women's 100-meter semifinal is today, and in it will be Marshevet Hooker, Allyson Felix and Lauryn Williams, all powerful and accomplished, with NCAA or world or Olympic medals, as Helene Elliott writes.
They are providing hope for a sport that has been battered by a never-ending series of drug scandals. How are they doing this? By voluntarily participating in a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency program that subjects them to an extraordinary number of drug tests so they can prove they're clean.
"I was worried at first they were taking too much blood," Williams told Elliott, "but I've gotten used to it. It doesn't affect my training."
And then there is Laura Roesler, barely 16, who also made it to the semifinals, winning the crowd's heart, a sprinter Helene and Phil Hersh wrote about last night on this blog.
The only question seems to be, will they really be able to turn their sport around and make it shine again?
As Helene points out in her column, among the 16 women in today's semifinals, eight ran faster than 11 seconds. Among them was Torri Edwards, who finished second in the 100 at the 2004 Olympic trials but was disqualified from the Athens team after she tested positive for a banned stimulant.
"I'm treating this like every other national championship," the USC graduate said. "I'm going out to win, like I did last year."
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Marshevet Hooker, right, crosses the finish line Friday ahead of Lauryn Williams.
Credit: Eric Risberg / Associated Press
 EUGENE, Ore. -- Who knew pole vaulters were comedians?
Paul Litchfield, competing in Friday's men's pole vault qualifying, wore a bodysuit whose front was imprinted with a tuxedo front, complete with bow tie, left.
Toby Stevenson, who competes while wearing a modified hockey helmet, did an animated, fist-pumping dance to celebrate a clearance early in the competition.
Kudos to them for injecting some fun into the generally tension-filled trials.
Both made it to the finals, which are set to begin on Sunday at 2:40 p.m. PDT.
Brad Walker is the leader going in after a vault Friday of 18-4 1/2, while Stevenson and Litchfield tied with 18 1/2.
Jeff Hartwig, 40, also made the finals, something perhaps no one expected. Read Phil Hersh's account of Hartwig's performance, in which the pole vaulter said, "I don't think it is as remarkable that I am doing this at 40 as it is that I am competing in my fifth Olympic trials."
--Helene Elliott and Debbie Goffa
Photo: Paul Litchfield in his "tux" after a successful jump in the pole vault preliminary round.
Credit: Andy Lyons/Getty Images
EUGENE, Ore. -- This city has long been a runners' haven, and it seems everyone here is aware of the track trials or involved in them as a volunteer or spectator.
Venerable Hayward Field has undergone extensive renovations, including the addition of grandstands and new coats of paint, and it looks spectacular. The only potential problem is the weather -- temperatures are expected to be in the mid-to-high 90s all weekend -- but sprinters love warm weather and the 100-meter dash for men and women will be contested today and Sunday.
-- Helene Elliott
Top photo: The newly refurbished Hayward Field earlier this month. Credit: Don Ryan / Associated Press
At right: Heptathlete Hyleas Fountain takes refuge from the sun. Credit: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images
 About 40 years ago, it was not uncommon for women (girls?) in their mid-teens to compete in the U.S. Olympic trials because the level of competition was far from what it is today and older athletes lacked the financial backing to prolong careers.
But Laura Roesler is the exception today.
And exceptional as well.
Roesler, 16, of Fargo, N.D., who just finished her sophomore year of high school, ran in the women's 800-meter heats as the 2008 trials opened tonight.
And she qualified for Saturday's semifinal by finishing fourth in her heat with a time of 2 minutes 4.03 seconds.
Roesler, seen here at far left, was 7th fastest of the 16 qualifiers. "It's pretty cool to even come to watch, let alone get to run,'' she said.
Roesler ran in hot pink fingernails and a sleeveless shirt with no logo rather than any kind of uniform.
"This is all I really have,'' she said. "I got it at Target.''
Her Friday night became a lot more exciting than it would have been at home.
"I would probably be hanging out with friends. There's not much to do in Fargo,'' she said.
She made a late charge to finish fourth after being boxed in early in the race.
"I was kind of worried,'' she said. "I didn't have the greatest position. When an opening came, I had to take it.''
Roesler began winning state high school meets as a seventh grader. She has won four straight titles at 400 meters and three straight at 100, 200 and 400.
Was this her greatest moment?
"Probably,'' she said.
Then she began throwing up.
-- Philip Hersh and Helene Elliott
Photo: Tenth-grader Laura Roesler, left, ran the race of her young lifetime in the women's 800-meter quarterfinal. At right is Hazel Clark, who won the heat. Credit: Eric Gay / Associated Press
EUGENE, Ore. -- Nicole Leach of UCLA, the 2007 NCAA champion in the 400-meter hurdles and runner-up this year, stumbled out of contention when she hit the seventh hurdle of the day's last preliminary heat. She couldn't make up the lost time and did not advance.
Leach said the wind came up "and I tried to open my stride. I realized my leg was coming up and I hit the hurdle."
She said she hadn't had a mishap like that since high school, and though she can take consolation from being young and likely having another chance in 2012, that wasn't a lot of comfort Friday.
"When you're here and doing well and healthy you'd rather go for it," she said. "To not make the final over something like this is very disappointing."
-- Helene Elliott
 EUGENE, Ore. -- Marshevet Hooker ran the fastest qualifying time in the women's 100-meter dash, 10.94 seconds, to lead 24 women into the second round. That was to be contested later Friday.
Hooker, Muna Lee (11.00), Allyson Felix of Los Angeles, (11.01), Carmelita Jeter of Gardena and Torri Edwards (11.16) of Los Angeles were the heat winners. Lauryn Williams (11.03) also advanced easily, as did Angela Williams, the world indoor 60-meter champion and a USC alumna.
Lauryn Williams, the Athens 100-meter silver medalist and 2005 world outdoor champion, said she was comfortable with her performance -- and happy for fellow competitor Muna Lee. "I've never counted her out," Williams said. "She's one of my favorite competitors. It's not one of those moody rivalries. We can chit-chat afterward."
Edwards, 31, missed the Athens Games while serving a doping ban. The drug she said she inadvertently ingested in a cold remedy, nikethamide, was downgraded by international anti-doping officals and her penalty cut from two years to 15 months. She was the 2003 world champion and might have won a medal, but she's not thinking about that now.
"I'm treating this like every other national championship," she said. "I'm going out to win like I did last year."
-- Helene Elliott
Photo: Marshevet Hooker crosses the finish line in a qualifying heat for the women's 100 meter race at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials. Credit: Eric Gay / Associated Press
EUGENE, Ore. -- Nice touch during the opening ceremony for the Olympic trials here today.
Members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team -- which didn't go to Moscow because of the boycott imposed by then-President Jimmy Carter -- were introduced at intervals and walked most of a lap around the track. The crowd was warmly appreciative, with many according the former athletes a much-deserved standing ovation.
Nothing will remove the sting of not going to the Games, but at least they know they and their sacrifice have not been forgotten.
--Helene Elliott
It's never too early to begin the quadrennial debate for U.S. track teams at the Olympics.
Who gets to run the relays.
Sure, none of the sprinters or quarter-milers will make the 2008 team until at least Saturday, when the women run the 100-meter final, but the lobbying already has begun.
In the past, this stuff has gotten ugly, like the controversy over whether Carl Lewis should run the sprint relay at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics (he didn't) because of past brilliance rather than the evidence provided by Lewis' 100 finish at the 1996 OIympic trials. "Butt-naked last,'' is how teammate Jon Drummond accurately described Lewis' performance.
Then there was 1992, when the Santa Monica Track Club (Lewis' club) was trying to shut Michael Johnson out of the 4 x 400 relay, and SMTC quarter-miler Danny Everett said of Olympic men's head coach Mel Rosen, "He is basically lying and double-talking."
It seems unlikely the disputes will get that vituperative this year. But the desire of the top two U.S. women sprint stars, Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards, to run both relays could create some controversy.
Felix is running the 100 meters but not the 400 in the Olympic trials. Richards is running the 400 but not the 100.
Relay selection rules allow the coaches to put anyone who has made the Olympic team in the relay pool. Even a shot putter.
Felix apparently has earned a 400 spot by virtue of her stunning leg on the winning U.S. relay at the 2007 worlds, when her split, 48.0, was the fastest ever by a U.S. woman. She also ran on the winning 4 x 100 relay, but her 100 spot this time may depend on how well she does here and/or in European races prior to the Olympics, although she has the fastest time by a U.S. woman this season (10.93).
Richards was the fourth-fastest 100 woman in the world (10.97) last season, but her best time this year is a pedestrian 11.26. She will try to prove her 100 merit in at least two European races.
"If I go sub-11 again, I think that could convince them, but I think it would be more important for me to beat someone in the pool and make it more obvious that I deserve to be there,'' Richards said.
"Sometimes times are hard to compare because of different wind stuff. I think I just need to beat some people to get on that team. I'm hoping to run the 100, either in London or Stockholm, hopefully get a chance to run against Lauryn and Allyson and Torri Edwards, the people who I think will most likely be in the pool, maybe nudge out one of them in a race.''
Whoever gets pushed out of the Olympic relay will miss a certain medal (barring a bad baton pass or the like) and likely a gold.
Ready, set, debate.
-- Philip Hersh
EUGENE, Ore. -- Hyleas Fountain cleared the second-best height, 5-11 1/4, in the high jump today to retain the heptathlon lead after two events.
For the metrically inclined, that's 1.81 meters.
The crowd has gradually grown, though many are remaining under the overhang to shield themselves from the sun.
--Helene Elliott
Photo: Hyleas Fountain leaps over the bar during the women's high jump in the Heptathlon event. Credit: David J. Phillip / Associated Press
EUGENE, Ore.--So we're officially underway. The first event was the first heat of the first phase of the heptathlon, the 100-meter hurdles.
The crowd may have been sparse, but this is the first day of a loooong competition so there's no sense in burning yourself out so early.
There's a nice breeze so the heat shouldn't be a problem for the moment.
And right off the bat Hyleas Fountain delivered the first noteworthy performance of the day with a 12.65 in the hurdles, setting three records. That gave her a strong start with 1,178 points (competitors get points based on their times/distances).
--Helene Elliott
 EUGENE, Ore.--Hyleas Fountain actually set three records with her 12.65 in the 100-meter hurdles to open the heptathlon competition.
Fountain, of Dayton, Ohio, bettered the previous American record for a heptathlon 100 set at Seoul in 1988 by Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
She also broke Joyner-Kersee's Olympic trials record of 12.71, set in 1988 at Indianapolis.
And for the hat trick, he bested Joyner-Kersee's U.S. championship record heptathlon 100 time of 12.77, set in 1991 in New York.
--Helene Elliott
Photo: Hyleas Fountain clears a hurdle in the women's 100-meter hurdles of the heptathlon event at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials today. Credit: David J. Phillip
--South Africa's Pretoria News reports that double-amputee Oscar Pistorius (pictured) has been granted additional time in which to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. Athletics South Africa extended its deadline from July 11 to July 17, giving the runner time to compete in four European races as he tries to hit the qualifying time of 45.55 for the 400-meter race.
--Australia's best mountain biker has failed to make the country's 28-person Beijing Games cycling squad because of criminal charges resulting from a 2007 biking incident. Cycling Australia's High Performance Management Committee ruled that it could not "in good faith" nominate Chris Jongewaard because of his legal problems. Jongewaard faces charges over a hit-and-run driving incident last year in which fellow cyclist and training partner Matthew Rex sustained head injuries.
--Reuters reported that the Chinese Swimming Assn. has confirmed that top Chinese backstroke swimmer Ouyang Kunpeng has been banned for life after testing positive for an illegal substance.
Ouyang, 25, won three individual silver medals at the 2006 Asian Games and three golds at the 2003 world university games.
--The Bulgarian Olympic Committee said that 11 weightlifters who had qualified for the Beijing Games had tested positive for an illegal substance. Reuters quoted federation leader Anton Kodzhabashev as saying: "If the second, B-test turns [out] positive as well, we will have to say goodbye to the Olympics." The 11 athletes, he added, "tested positive for a substance that has not been in use for 25 years. I suspect someone has dropped it there deliberately."
--Greg Johnson
Photo: Oscar Pistorius during a June 1 training session in the Netherlands. Credit: Gerlinde Schrijver/European Pressphoto Agency
 EUGENE, Ore. -- Friend and competitive foe alike agreed with a federal judge that Justin Gatlin did not belong in the U.S. Olympic Track and Field trials that begin Friday.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled only on jurisdictional grounds in its Thursday denial of an injunction that would have allowed the 2004 Olympic 100-meter champion to run despite his being halfway through a 4-year doping suspension.
His peers delivered a harsh judgment on Gatlin's decision to seek that injunction.
Tyson Gay, the reigning world champion in the 100, plainly was delighted by the judge's decision.
"I think it's good for the sport, and not just for America, not just our trials,'' Gay said. "It shows USA Track & Field and everyone is standing up, sticking to their guns.''
A few minutes earlier, before he learned of the decision, Gay had expressed the same thought I did in this blog a few days ago: that Gatlin was acting selfishly.
After all, the international track federation had said Gatlin, whose suspension had been upheld by sport's Supreme Court, could not run in the Olympics even if he makes the U.S. Team.
"Our sport doesn't need any more negative attention,'' Gay said. "If Justin Gatlin so-called loves the sport, he would do what's right and let these people and myself have their moment, because he has already had his moment. For a lot of us, it's our first time trying to make the Olympic team.
"I think it would be a little unfair and a little selfish for him to take peoples' moment away from them.''
World 200-meter champion Allyson Felix, close to Gatlin for several years, admitted she would be uncomfortable having her pal in the meet.
"I have mixed emotions," she said. "He's my friend, and I wish him the best in anything he does.
"When I look at it not from a personal standpoint but just purely athletically, it would be a distraction. He would be a focus of a lot of things, and that focus would be on drug-related things, and that is definitely what we are trying to get away from.''
-- Philip Hersh
Photo: Justin Gatlin in a 100-meter race in May. Credit: Karim Jaafar / AFP/Getty Images
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 EUGENE, Ore. -- Frankly, my dears, Wallace Spearmon doesn't give a darn whether a court allows 2004 Olympic 100-meter champion Justin Gatlin to run in the Olympic trials.
Spearmon, a 2005 World silver medalist at 200 meters, could be lining up against Gatlin, banned for drug use.
"It will have no affect on what I came here to do," Spearmon said today. "If he runs, he runs. I don't have time to worry about it."
World champion Allyson Felix, however, admitted she would be uncomfortable gaving Gatlin in the meet.
Read on »
 A Bruin through and through, Jeanette Bolden, the U.S. women's track coach, knows plenty about winning, having captured a gold medal in the 4x100 relay at the 1984 Olympics here in L.A. She just completed her 14th season directing the women's track program at UCLA, her alma mater, but now is focusing on the Beijing Games and the track and field trials that begin Friday.
She met with the media yesterday in the Eugene, Ore., site of the trials. Here is an excerpt, courtesy of USA Track & Field:
Q: Could you talk about the drama of the Olympic Trials?
A: Fortunately and unfortunately, our system is fortunate for those three [per event] who make the team, and it's unfortunate for everyone else trying to make the team. I'll say this: you are going to see the best and the brightest in track and field. Whether or not they make the team, you are going to see the best and the brightest, and that's what this is about, having the trials and going through our system and being here in Eugene. The athletes will be well supported and the fans will get to see track and field in its truest sense. The individuals know they can't blame it on anyone else, it's just you and the clock.
Read more excerpts from her day with the media and get a full TV schedule.
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Jeanette Bolden meets with the media Wednesday. Credit: Kirby Lee / Image of Sport-US Presswire
Banned Olympics 100 meters champion Justin Gatlin simply won't give up his fight to run in Saturday's qualifying heats at the U.S. track and field trials in Eugene, Ore.
Attorneys for Gatlin took his case to the next level, sending a motion to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta tonight and asking the court to issue an emergency injunction (pending the Olympic gold medalist's appeal of the ban) that would allow him to compete.
The top three finishers in each race qualify for a spot on the Olympics team.
His is nothing, though, compared with Butch Reynolds' intense fight that shook up the 1992 trials in New Orleans in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. Sporting News posted the Asoociated Press story that recalls Reynolds' case.
Anyway, even if the 11th Circuit issues an injunction and Gatlin wins a spot on the U.S. team, it still isn't clear he would be allowed to compete in Beijing. The International Olympic Committee, after all, issues accreditation and would probably deny Gatlin a spot because the Court of Arbitration for Sport recently upheld his doping ban.
And if you missed Phil Hersh's stance on this case, read it now. As for Gatlin's court case, stay tuned.
-- Debbie Goffa
 Unlike gymnastics and basketball, there are no behind-closed-doors meetings when it's time to select the U.S. track and field team. The decisions are immediate.
Athletes who want to compete during the Beijing Games must go all-out at this weekend's U.S. Olympic Team Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. The list of athletes who will compete for the trip is at www.usatf.org.
Not everyone likes the winners-take-all approach. Doubters say it's foolish to put such proven commodities as Tyson Gay -- who ran the fastest U.S. 100-meter race of 2008 -- at risk of injury. (The Times carried this story about Gay recently.) Rich Perelman, writing at wcsn.com, sums up opposition to track and field's competition this way:
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 A federal judge in Florida today rescinded his order allowing banned sprinter Justin Gatlin to compete in the Olympic track and field trials this weekend. Judge Lacey Collier said he believed the defending 100-meter champion "is being wronged," but he lacked jurisdiction over the U.S. Olympic Committee to determine who is eligible for the trials. Gatlin is banned for doping offenses. What happened today and why is detailed in AP's report. But our own Phil Hersh has already weighed in on this very blog. Read it.
-- Debbie Goffa
Photo: Justin Gatlin arrives at federal court. Credit: AP /Pensacola News Journal, Tony Giberson
I am all for athletes exercising every right they have to seek exoneration in doping cases, since the  well-intentioned system to fight performance-enhancing drug use remains capricious, often sloppy in handling and testing of samples and extremely costly to challenge.
That being said, I think 2004 Olympic 100-meter champion Justin Gatlin is being selfish in seeking an injunction to run at the Olympic trials that begin Friday in Eugene, Ore.
If a judge rules Monday he can compete at the trials, he will cause a circus that is guaranteed to annoy and overshadow the other athletes.
Were Gatlin to make the team, there is no chance the international track federation (IAAF) will allow him to run in Beijing. He is suspended four years because a positive 2006 test for the steroid testosterone was his second positive, following one for amphetamines in a medicine prescribed to treat attention deficit disorder.
Sport’s supreme court, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, this month rejected Gatlin’s appeal, which asked the 2001 test not be considered. CAS officials said that decision must be appealed to a Swiss court.
``For us, CAS decisions are final and binding,'' IAAF spokesman Nick Davies told me in a Monday email from the federation's headquarters in Monte Carlo.
There is a 1992 precedent for this, and it doesn’t bode well for Gatlin -– especially since
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